Obliviously in Like
by BadonKaDank
Summary: Alternate title: 5 times the Kaminari and Shinsou were oblivious to their feelings for one another and 1 time they weren't because communication is a thing that for some reason they didn't try all the other times before?
1. After School

After School

There was something to be said about sharing a living space with your homeroom teacher. It was equal parts terrifying and cool. Terrifying because their teacher was Eraserhead, and if he ever found out half the stupid things they did without his supervision he would probably expel them. Cool because their teacher was _Eraserhead_, who would protect them to the death and do what he could to make sure they succeeded in becoming the best heroes they could be.

Still, there were those moments when he reminded them less of a teacher and more of a parent. Like the times when he would walk into the common room and find Bakugou about to smash a game controller over Kirishima's head when he beat him in whatever game they were playing, or told them all they needed to go to bed after watching their movie- or, most recently, when he stopped by before heading out for a patrol and reminded them all that their mock field reports were due tomorrow morning.

Denki hated and appreciated those moments, because on the one hand, having a constant reminder for everything school related sucked, but on the other hand, he almost never remembered due dates for things, so having reminders could be helpful.

As it currently stood, it just stressed him out like crazy. Because, well, he'd totally forgotten about the mock field report, which was supposed to be a five page minimum and cover his assigned "villain." And he hadn't been able to find the paperwork for that villain… Which meant he'd spent the better part of dinner trying to find it while everyone's laughter filtered in through his open door. Because obviously they'd already finished their reports. Well, maybe not Mina, but she'd probably just whip hers up in the morning.

He envied her ability to sit down and be able to make herself focus when something was important. Every time he tried to do that he just ended up twitchy and itchy and unable to focus on the one thing he was meant to be focusing on. He'd gotten his room cleaned and reorganized so many times that way. He'd also started too many tasks to finish that way, but, eh.

When he finally did find the papers he needed to work off of, his room was newly cleaned and it was dangerously close to curfew. He fanned through the information packet and groaned when he counted three front-to-back pages. It wasn't that many -at least in terms of Mr. Aizawa homework- but it was just another thing he would have to get through before he could actually write the report. Which meant he was going to be up later than he wanted to be.

"Ugh. Guess I'll die." He sighed as he settled on his bed.

The door to his room was still open, but he hadn't expected to be interrupted, so when a purple head popped in he yelped and dropped the page. Shinsou scratched the back of his neck and muttered an apology. Denki tried not to blush at his reaction and set his pages down for a moment- he'd already reread the same paragraph three times and couldn't remember what it said, so he was probably due for a break anyway. Honestly, Shinsou had become a pretty normal face to see around the dorms as of late, so he shouldn't have been surprised to see him around still, but…

"'Sup?" He waved the guy over with a grin when Shinsou lingered in the doorway awkwardly.

"Okay." Shinsou shrugged and sat on the edge of his bed, perched like he was going to need to jump off and run at any given moment. Denki could never quite figure him out. When he was with everyone in the Commons he was so chill, man-spreading and slouching and mocking Bakugou whenever he opened his mouth, but whenever he hung around him he got all… stiff and weird like now.

Maybe he just did better in groups?

"So," he tried again when Shinsou didn't say anything, "what's up?"

"Everyone is heading to bed." Shinsou shrugged, scratched the back of his head again. "We didn't see you for dinner and were just wondering why you disappeared."

"Oh, right. That." Denki looked down at the evil papers that had been taunting him all evening and bit his lip. "I forgot about the report, so… I've been working on it."

"Really?" Shinsou finally looked at him, head tilted and Denki wanted to shrink from his probing gaze. His eyes were crazy intense and having them on him like that made his face heat up like when he over fired his quirk.

"I did mine the day we got it."

Of course he had.

"Do you want some help?"

Denki's eyes widened and he felt his brain briefly short circuit. Of all the people he'd expected that offer from… Shinsou hadn't been on the list.

As it stood, while he wanted to accept the help, because Shinsou seemed like a pretty smart dude, he also didn't want to look like an idiot in front of him. Shinsou was one of the few people who had never said anything about his… lack of… academic ability. Of all the people in their class, he was the one who Denki seriously didn't want to mess up around. He didn't know why, and it was probably dumb, but he just didn't want that. So as much as he wanted to accept the help, he found himself shaking his head quickly and sitting up a little straighter.

"No thanks! I'm good."

Shinsou didn't look convinced. "You sure?"

"Yyyup!" He grinned for effect and picked the discarded pages up with a flourish. "All good here. Don't worry about me."

"Kaminar-"

"Anyway, it's getting pretty late, so you should probably head to your room. Wouldn't want you getting in trouble or anything for being in someone else's room after hours. Haha!" He made no move to make Shinsou leave, but he might as well have been physically shoving him out the door with how the guy responded to his words.

A bit of red tinged Shinsou's ears as he got up and shuffled towards the hallway. "Alright," he muttered, "Well, good luck."

The sound of the door closing made him sigh heavily and fall backwards into his pillow. He was _not_ all good, but else should he have done? He couldn't be a good hero if he couldn't write his own stupid reports. If that meant he would have to stay up late and suffer during classes tomorrow… well, he'd have something in common with Mr. Aizawa, wouldn't he?

* * *

When Shouta got back from patrolling, it was well past midnight and he could have easily collapsed onto the couch and slept all semester. There was something to be said about uneventful patrols leaving him more tired than if he'd spent the whole night fighting villains. Hell, he'd have been content with a plain mugging, but criminals had been oddly absent tonight. Honestly, it would've been rational to turn in hours ago, but he hadn't wanted to slack- that was when things went wrong.

But… there had been nothing.

Ugh, and the more he thought about it, the more the idea of dropping lazily onto the couch appealed.

He geared up to do just that, too, but something stopped him before he could fully enter the common area. The noise was quiet- had there been any other noise, it would have been inaudible, but he caught it immediately. One of his students was crying. It was a noise that was quite familiar to him, and he frowned while stepping into the half-lit room.

Kaminari was seated on the couch, curled into himself and glaring at a spread of papers and pencils in front of him on the table. A charger hung between his trembling lips, connected to the phone on the armrest. Fat tears spilled from his eyes and soon as he realized he was being watched, the boy tried wiping them away. It didn't do anything but make them fall harder.

While he didn't know the full extent of what was bothering him, Shouta had the feeling it pertained to the report that he'd reminded them of before leaving. If the way Kaminari whimpered when looking between him and the mess of papers was an indicator, he was right.

He sighed under his breath and made his way over to his student. Fatigue begged him to just send the kid to bed and deal with his problems in the morning, but he ignored that. As much as he wanted to sleep, he couldn't leave Kaminari when he was obviously upset.

"What is it, Kaminari?" He sat down beside the boy carefully and his frown deepened when he flinched and pulled in a shaking breath.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Aizawa," he whispered, voice hoarse and Shouta had to wonder how long he'd been crying.

He was about to ask what for when Kaminari beat him to it.

"I forgot about the project. A-And I'm trying to do it. I promise I am, but-but I keep getting lost and forgetting what I want to write, and I-I-I don't know why I keep f-forgetting- It's like no mat-matter what I do, I can't fo-focus, and I don't wanna fail and I'm sorry!" By the end of his rant he was sobbing into his hands, phone charger forgotten as he keened quietly.

For his part, Shouta was rubbing his tired eyes and contemplating calling Hizashi. This kind of problem seemed more up his alley- emotional problems weren't things he found particularly easy to deal with. But given the hour, he knew there was no way that was going to work. He was on his own.

"How am I supposed to be a hero when I can't even get my brain to work right? Am I really that stupid?" Kaminari's voice was so quiet he almost didn't hear him and Shouta ignored the clenching his heart did in response to the words.

There weren't a lot of things he knew how to deal when it came to teenage psyche, but he did know a bit about what was going through Kaminari's mind. He'd had plenty of his own struggles when he'd been his age- not academically, but when it came to making friends and fighting… there had been a long period when he'd thought he was incapable of doing either. It was a horrible thing, that worthless feeling. Irrational, of course, but try telling that to a child.

Without further thought, he grabbed Kaminari's shoulder and pulled him gently against his side. It was something that he would have killed any adult for doing had the roles been reversed, but also something he knew he would have needed. And Kaminari wasn't like him in that respect- he was like Hizashi, and physical contact was important.

Yeah. He could just approach this like he would with Hizashi.

The boy squeaked in surprise, looking up at him with wide, wet eyes. Shouta sighed again and met his gaze.

"You're not stupid, Denki. Struggling with something doesn't make you an idiot."

"B-But, I've been working on this report for hours and I still have nothing!" His lip trembled as he protested and Shouta looked away. Damn, the kid was pulling his heartstrings.

"I'm sure that's not true." He wasn't, but it was late, and Kaminari was obviously tired on top of everything else that was going through his head, so he didn't want to discourage him.

"It is!" Kaminari wiped his nose with his sleeve and wiped that on the couch. Shouta bit back a grimace. "I keep thinking about what I should write, and then I forget it as soon as I try to actually write it…"

"Well, what do you think about writing?"

Kaminari told him, and Shouta couldn't help but frown as he listened to the boy explain what the report needed to say. It wasn't half bad- in fact, it was better than anything he'd seen from his written work. It made him wonder just how many of Kaminari's papers would have been better if he'd been able to dictate them to someone whose mind didn't wander.

An idea formed in his head and he wanted to wring his own neck for the negative impact it would have on his sleep schedule for the upcoming day. He ignored that thought, however, because if what he was thinking of ended up working, he would have to have a chat with Nezu about possibly working in some student aid- which should have been a service the school already offered, now that he thought about it.

"That's good, actually," he finally assured Kaminari, who stared at him like he'd sprung a second head. "Now, you need to go to sleep."

Kaminari immediately protested. "But I'm not done-"

He held up a hand to silence him. "Come to the teachers lounge during lunch and I will help you with the report."

Kaminari blinked and went slack-jawed. "Wh-what?"

He only nodded and got up, biting back a groan when his tired body protested. He gathered up the papers and Kaminari's phone and charger and set everything in the boy's arms when he offered them up.

"Now. Bed."

"Okay. Thank you, Mr. Aizawa."

Kaminari still seemed to be in a daze when he scampered off to his room. Shouta only shook his head and collapsed onto the couch, his eyes falling closed almost immediately.

* * *

If anyone had told him he would be closing in on his second year at UA and dictating a report for Mr. Aizawa to type up for him before classes continued, Denki would have laughed and told them they were crazy.

But that had somehow become his reality. He'd been mortified when his teacher had walked in on him having a breakdown that morning, but after he'd calmed him down and made him feel like less of a screw up, things had started going better. The last thing he'd expected was for Mr. Aizawa to offer him help like he had, but he wasn't complaining. And, as it turned out, he could write decent papers… when he wasn't the one doing all of the typing.

He found it so much easier to focus when he could just let his stream of conscious flow from his mouth. He'd been able to explain what he'd read, what it meant, and how he would put it into an official report, and when Mr. Aizawa had finished typing it… it had looked pretty darn good, if he did say so himself.

He'd been feeling awesome too, right up until Shinsou had approached him before classes started back up and told him Mr. Aizawa had asked if he would mind helping him out the same way he had- at least until they were able to find a more permanent solution to Denki's problem, since it wasn't like the world was going to cater to him all the time. And, oddly enough Shinsou had said yes.

"I mean, I don't have anything else to do, so." And that was his explanation. Simple as that. Denki wasn't even sure how truthful that statement was, because he was pretty sure Shinsou had been working to catch up on all the hero coursework he'd missed out on the first couple of semesters that he'd been stuck in General Studies.

That was how he found himself sitting in the back of the classroom with Shinsou after classes had ended, going over notes and homework for tomorrow. They were sitting across from each other, legs crossed, because Denki found it easier to focus when he wasn't in a chair. If Shinsou had a problem with it, he hadn't said anything.

He wondered if he was the only one with that problem- where sitting the wrong way in the wrong place made thoughts go haywire and their bodies shake with pent up energy.

Shinsou tapped his pencil on his page to draw his attention back to the problem they were working on and Denki blinked. He expected the guy to say something further, like, "pay attention, bolt-brain" or something like that, but he only offered a look that asked if he was all good.

He was pretty awesome, Denki decided. He also had nice hands.

Wait, was that weird to think?

Before he could go further with those thoughts, the sound of the door sliding open startled him. Shinsou too, who stiffened and stared at the door with narrowed eyes.

"Shooot-oh, there you are."

It was only Present Mic, and they both relaxed when the loud hero stepped into the room. He didn't pay them any mind, if he noticed them at all, and Denki watched with curiosity as the voice hero stopped beside the podium. He could now see that Mr. Aizawa had fallen asleep over it, one arm hanging off the side.

He must have been pretty tired if he hadn't even bothered getting into his sleeping bag. He thought back to how the hero had helped him last night and today instead of sleeping and couldn't help but feel bad. Everyone knew how exhausted their teacher was at any given time of the day, and they also knew how far and few between his naps actually were. Anybody would feel like they sucked if they kept him from resting.

He had to admit, it was kind of weird seeing Present Mic coming looking for him, though. Most of their teachers didn't interact with one another unless it was for lesson plans and missions, after all.

The whole situation became all the weirder when he heard his English teacher making little cooing noises under his breath. "Why can't you be cute like this when you're awake?"

_Cute? _He glanced at Shinsou and saw the boy was looking at him as well. He raised a brow and mouthed that as a question, to which Shinsou just shrugged. Denki didn't get it. There were a lot of words he would use to describe Mr. Aizawa. Cute wasn't one of them.

Maybe it was a running joke or something. Those two had been friends in school or something, if he'd heard right. Given how Mic was currently snickering and snapping photos with his phone, they still were.

That odd display lasted a few more minutes before Present Mic put his phone away and gently shook their teacher awake. Mr. Aizawa's grumbling was easily echoed to the back of the room and Shinsou smirked. It was an endearing expression on him and Denki found himself staring a little longer than was strictly normal. He mentally chided himself and turned his attention back when he heard Mic talking again.

"Y'know, you should just change your hero name to Sleepyhead. It's more accurate, don'tcha think?"

"Shut up," Mr. Aizawa grumbled, picking himself up and stretching. Mic nudged his shoulder and Mr. Aizawa did something with his face that Denki couldn't see, but it had their English teacher cackling.

He threw an arm around Mr. Aizawa's shoulders and bumped his head into his. It was a pretty normal display to see from Mic, who did that sort of thing with all of their teachers, but it was funky seeing the grumpy don't-touch-me Eraserhead accept it.

The two teachers left the room after that and Denki found himself staring after where they'd disappeared for a few minutes. He hadn't realized those two were such close friends. It was cool to see two adults he really looked up to being so casual around each other. He wasn't sure why, but… okay he knew why, but…

"Hey," Shinsou tapped his nose with his pencil and Denki yelped, turning around quickly to face the purple haired teen who was still smirking. "Back to work, yeah?"

He hoped his blush wasn't actually visible when he picked his own pencil back up and honed in on the homework so that he didn't end up staring at Shinsou. "Y-Yeah. Where were we?"

* * *

_A/n: So… this was meant to be an Erasermic fic, but it got away from me and now I ship ShinKami… so yeah. Yep.  
__Anyway, this is purely self-indulgent and I don't even care. I hope y'all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! - None of the chapters have been edited so please forgive any typos/repetitive phrasings._


	2. You're on The Air

You're on The Air

So he was having a crisis.

Well, it was probably a crisis. He hadn't really been able to focus on it long enough to decide if it actually was or not. It certainly felt like one whenever he gave it more than thirty seconds of thought, but he wanted to wait and see what the girls thought before he let it consume him.

Granted, that was easier said than done.

After all, he was around Shinsou nearly every day. They studied together after class and in the dorms when homework was particularly hard, and slowly but surely Shinsou had started coming out of his shell. He'd been well on his way before, having been part of their class for almost a month, but lately he'd been extra open. Study nights became hangouts with everyone, watching movies and playing video games- sometimes they ended up talking in the kitchen when Shinsou made snacks with Sato and he charged people's phones.

He'd found out Shinsou loved cats, had insomnia (something that ran in the family. Apparently his dad was a doctor who had a quirk that left him incapable of sleeping), was a fan of Eraserhead (which wasn't all that shocking) even though he tried to act casual about it. And he actually liked everyone in their class, even if he was kind of distant most of the time- he seemed to be a lot like Mr. Aizawa in that respect, not being a people person.

All of that had been enough to make Denki question his feelings, which had begun mirroring what he'd felt regarding Kyouka for a while back when they were just starting at UA, and that had been before they'd ended up drawing each others names from a hat and sparred together.

He didn't even know what happened in those twenty minutes they'd spent together. All he knew was that they had spent half of that time trading blows, with it taking everything in him to not respond when Shinsou taunted him, then asked him friendly questions, then taunted him again when he managed to get some good hits in. Then, he'd managed to knock his opponent to the floor with a shock and Shinsou had said, "Ow, did you mean to make that hurt?" and he'd responded, and the next thing he knew, Shinsou had been flipping him over his shoulder and tying his wrists together with his capture weapon so he couldn't escape.

There was no describing how that moment had made him feel. In the setting of sparring, where nobody was actually getting seriously hurt, being under Shinsou's control hadn't been the least bit scary. Kind of weird, but honestly it wasn't too far off from when he sort of lost control of his own mind when he fried himself. Funky as all hell, but not bad. It had been weirdly… nice, being at his mercy. Bakugou would have screamed at him that heroes didn't surrender themselves that easily, but he hadn't been able to care, because Shinsou's eyes were on his and he'd been smiling.

It hadn't lasted long, though, as Shinsou had just tilted his head half a second later, probably because he'd felt no resistance (another thing he'd explained about his quirk during some of their late-night hangouts) and soon after Denki felt himself being released, both mentally and physically.

Then, Shinsou chuckled and said, "C'mon, Sparky, I know you can do better than that."

And then he'd winked.

He'd. Fucking. Winked.

Denki couldn't remember how the rest of that sparring session had gone, but he did know that was when he'd found a name to put to the way he'd been feeling around Shinsou; why his heart thumped harder in his chest when he smiled, and why his mouth went dry when their hands brushed while doing homework- why he went so dumb when he was next to him.

He, Denki Kaminari, had a crush on Hitoshi Shinsou. A boy.

And it wasn't nearly on the same level as his crush on Kyouka had been. Kyouka had given him butterflies and sweaty palms, and had made him a little stupid, sure, but… not like Shinsou. Maybe it was just a puberty thing.

Either way, he had no clue what he was supposed to do about- _if_ he was supposed to do anything about it. There were no rules for anything like this, as far as he knew -and he'd looked. He got the feeling it wasn't cool for heroes to be… in relationships like that, especially with other heroes. From what he'd gathered, heroes being together in any capacity with other heroes that they worked with was pretty controversial- if the rumors going around about Mount Lady and Makui Woods was any kind of example.

Not that he was thinking about being in a relationship with Shinsou!

Actually, that was kind of why he'd been avoiding thinking about how he felt altogether. It was also why when he had heard the girls talking about getting together for a sleepover he'd asked to join. And once he had assured them that he just wanted to have some girl chat, and that he didn't mind painting nails and sleep on the floor, they allowed it. Which was nice, because if he was being real with himself, he couldn't consider even approaching that kind of topic with the guys. They were too… manly? Maybe they would have been fine with it and offered some nice, dude perspectives, but he wasn't even sure about himself and how he felt, so the last thing he wanted to risk was bringing it up with them.

Not that he was even sure he was going to bring it up at all.

It had seemed like a solid plan: Bring it up in casual conversation and have a heart-to-heart with the girls. Easy.

However, now that he was actually in Kyouka's house, hanging out in the living room with everyone else, he was starting to think he would just leave it alone. Even if her parents were out, so there was no chance of an adult hearing and reporting back to the school or something… was there really anything to talk about? It wasn't actually a big deal, and he was making it something that it wasn't- it wasn't a crush. He just thought Shinsou was super cool, that was all. He had a… a friend crush. Yeah! Like how Kirishima had a friend crush on Bakugou.

Yup. A… friend crush. That's what it was. One hundred percent.

"Yo, Kaminari, you just gonna sit there or are you gonna play?" Kyouka called over from where they were sat around the coffee table. They had a set of Cards Against Humanity out and were looking at him expectantly.

He laughed at himself for letting his mind wander again and came to sit between Uraraka and Mina. "Yeah, man, let's do this!"

The game went on a little over an hour, and they only stopped because he'd ended up laughing so hard he gave everyone a small zap. Kyouka had decided it was getting a little too much at that point, which, fair.

After that, it was a lot of hair brushing and messing around with instruments, and just talking about things that didn't relate to school for once. When the mini jam session ended, Kyouka turned on the radio, putting it on a Present Mic's familiar station. Denki appreciated that. He knew everyone else liked it, which was why she'd tuned the radio to that, but he liked listening to Present Mic's shows. There was something about their teacher's nighttime radio voice that was super soothing.

His caller segments were also awesome. He had some really neat insights on life that he shared with people when they asked for his advice. Which was nice, because a lot of radio hosts got questions from their callers that never really get answered.

When there was a lull in the conversation and everyone was painting each other's nails, that particular segment came on and Denki told Hagakure to turn it up. Kyouka agreed with his request.

"He's actually got some pretty interesting perspectives," she said while doing a top coat on Momo's pinky finger.

He nodded in agreement and then settled in to listen while Tsu got to work putting black and yellow onto his nails. He was going to do green and blue with little water lilies on her ring fingers when it was his turn.

"Alright, listener, you're on the air. What's up?" Present Mic's voice filtered through the loudspeaker and Denki awaited to hear what the caller wanted the voice hero to answer.

"Um, yeah. Hi Mr. Mic. I was wondering… Um… what would you do if you liked someone, but your being together could cause controversy. Or, I suppose more specifically: Do you know what the laws are regarding heroes… who are men… being in relationships with other men. Who are also heroes?"

The caller's voice was pretty generic- it could have been anyone off the street, but Denki couldn't help but think how the way they spoke was similar to Shinsou and- Oh God, he had it worse than he thought if he was picking out vocal mannerisms from random people.

But further than that, the question itself had his heart beating wild in his chest. It was like someone had looked directly into his brain and scooped his own questions out to splatter all over the air.

"Whoa. That's a heavy question," Mina stated and the others agreed.

"I am curious about the answer," Momo said, leaning closer to Kyouka and staring at the radio, awaiting answers.

Denki did the same thing, resisting the urge to crawl right up to the device to make sure he didn't miss anything that was said. He didn't want to risk wrecking the circuits if he got frazzled though, so he stayed put, ignoring the swirling in his stomach and the sweat building up on his palms.

"Well, Little Listener," Mic started slowly, his voice lacking it's usual crazy, upbeat tone, taking on something more serious, "I can't say I know of any laws that say whether it is or isn't allowed. As far as I'm aware, there are no rules for or against it. There are always going to be people who don't think it's acceptable, but it's not up to them to decide. I know through personal experience that some agencies are not accepting of gay heroes -I'm saying gay, because that's my experience. But you don't necessarily have to be gay specifically for this to apply, listener. But, there are those out there that are. I'm fortunate enough to have ended up with an awesome agency that is totally A-OK with who I am and who I love, and they will defend me if and when the people try to make a stink about it.

"I don't think that sort of thing is something you can avoid when you're a hero. Are there any laws that say you cannot be in a relationship with another man when you're both heroes? No, not that I know of- and I do tend to keep a close eye on those sorts of things. All of that being said, I wanna level with you: It'll be hard sometimes. A lot of people don't understand love that they themselves don't feel, and that can lead to some harsh stuff coming out of them. I want you to remember that what they do or do not do and say is never your fault, first of all. Second of all, you just remember that while nobody should keep you from being who you are, you don't owe it to people to come out. If you feel like you're in a safe place, and you trust the people you're with and you want to, then do what makes you comfortable. And if none of that applies, you don't have to do anything you don't want to.

"Just know that whatever you decide to do, you're amazing, and strong and loved. Oh! And if you like this guy, I'd give it a shot!"

There was a long pause on the other end before the caller said a quiet, "Thank you," and if Denki didn't know if he was projecting as he blinked back his own tears, but it sure sounded like the caller was crying.

"Any time, Little Listener. Take care." Mic sniffled and Denki blinked in surprise, realizing he and the caller hadn't been the only one affected by that speech. The emotional moment didn't last long, and a second later the voice hero was exclaiming that he hadn't meant to talk so long on that last call. "I hope the rest of you weren't waiting too long- but that one was pretty important."

When he glanced at the girls, he saw Mina was slack-jawed, while Uraraka and Momo were wiping their eyes. Kyouka had a weirdly guarded look on her face that reminded him of how Shinsou looked sometimes when they got super deep into one of their late-night chats.

Denki didn't know how to process everything he'd heard. Being told there was nothing wrong with those feelings and that one of the heroes he looked up to was gay -Present Mic. Gay. Wow.- was… a lot.

He moved onto the next caller, but nobody was listening after that one. The girls all dissolved into chatter, asking if anyone else caught that— "did Present Mic just say he was gay?"

Denki thought back to two weeks ago, when he'd seen Present Mic collect their teacher from the classroom. How he'd called Mr. Aizawa cute and taken pictures of him. Whether or not that had been just friend stuff… it certainly held more weight for him now. And he wasn't about to assume anything about Mr. Aizawa after the revelation Mr. Mic just dropped, but… on the off chance that he was, and they were together or something…

"Why?" He voiced the question casually and the Tsu tilted her head at him.

"What do you mean? Ribbit."

"Well, why do you guys care if Mr. Mic is gay? Does that… like, does it bother you?"

He balked at the idea that the people he enjoyed spending time with -who wanted to be heroes- being bothered by that sort of thing. What Mic had said to the first caller… the part about telling people if you felt safe and comfortable doing so… it applied to the group he found himself with right now. But if they were going to be bothered by just the idea of their teacher not being straight, then… maybe not.

As it was, Kyouka was giving him a weird look and he felt strangely vulnerable because of it. It was like she knew something the others didn't- like she understood the deeper meaning behind his question.

Mina's answer, followed immediately by nods from the others served to soothe his nerves, though. "Whaaat? No way, Kami! It'd be super cute if Mr. Mic has a boyfriend- like, if he does, we can try to figure out who it is, which, how fun, right?"

"Yeah," Uraraka agreed, "we're just curious. That's all."

"Why do _you_ ask, Denki?"

Kyouka asked that and he stared right at her. She didn't use his first name a lot, even though she'd been given permission to do so ages ago, so he knew how serious she was. She wasn't being antagonistic. She wanted to know why he was suddenly so serious, which, fair. He was rarely so serious about topics like this.

It had never been a topic that had anything to do with him.

"Well… because… I think I. I like Shinsou."

The room exploded with squeals of "WHAT?!" and "When did _that_ happen?" and "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"I didn't know how you'd react!" He laughed and tapped his fingers together, feeling the nervous static energy passing back and forth. "And, well… I mean, like ever since he joined our class I think. But… remember when we got paired up for sparring?"

"Oh, that recently?" Mina's eyes were still insanely wide and he couldn't help but laugh a little and nod as all the staring started making him feel more nervous. Nobody had said anything against this, but they also… hadn't really said much. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but he certainly hadn't expected to feel like this.

Oddly enough, Momo was the one who seemed to catch onto his discomfort first.

"That's sweet, Kaminari. And we appreciate that you trusted us enough to tell us. I know I support you- and Shinsou, if you two decide to pursue a relationship."

"Omigosh!" Mina shouted, getting up and grabbing Denki's hands while she bounced from foot to foot in barely contained excitement, "If you guys got together, we could come up with a power couple hero duo name for you guys! Like ShinKami! Or Electric Brain Freeze!"

"And you guys could go on double dates with me and Mashirao!" Hagakure gasped.

The positivity from all of their responses made Denki's heart pound for a completely different reason then and he laughed at their suggestions, trying to subtly wipe the tears forming in the corners of his eyes. The brief fear that they wouldn't accept him after telling them that disappeared in full. He went to say something but Kyouka interrupted him.

"Okay, sure, but I gotta ask: Why Shinsou?"

Denki's heart was still hammering and he stared at his hands. It was weird, talking about these things like they were normal. Like it was normal to have a crush on a guy who was kinda becoming like a best friend and was not a girl. It was so awesome and weird at the same time.

But yeah. Shinsou.

"Well… I mean… why not?" He glanced between all of them and they were nodding. Kyouka shrugged and he mirrored the motion. "I dunno. He's awesome, and really smart, and his drive to be a hero is crazy admirable, and he's got really pretty eyes and his hair looks so soft and…" and he was saying way too much. "Um… but yeah, I dunno."

"Sounds like you know to me," Kyouka snickered and Uraraka giggled along with her before adding a question of her own. "His eyes are pretty?"

"I always thought he looked like a tired racoon all the time," Mina tacked on and Denki rolled his eyes. She said the same sort of stuff about Mr. Aizawa, too.

"Yeah. his eyes are… they're like purple but sometimes they have this ring of gray around them- and I mean c'mon! His pupils are _white!_ How is that _not_ beautiful?"

"If you say so," Mina hummed. Kyouka was just grinning at him.

"Hey Kami? That's gay."

He swallowed hard and looked away again. It was just a joke, and he knew that, but… it was still weird. Being directed at him, it felt weird. Because…

"I'm not gay. I… I still like girls. I just also like Shinsou."

"Oh. Chill."

After that, everything quieted a little and Denki couldn't deny that it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his chest. He wished there was a way he could go up to Present Mic on Monday and tell him thank you without having to explain what it was he'd done for him.

He didn't want to make a scene, and he certainly wasn't ready to tell the guys yet, but he still wanted to do something to let Mr. Mic know he'd helped him. He didn't see a way of doing that which ended without an interrogation from the guys, though. He wasn't ready for that. He'd have to test the waters a bit before he would consider telling them. When he told the girls as much, they agreed not to say anything. After that, the night seemed like it was going to be pretty calm- like they were going to do something else and leave his new revelation on the back burner until something became of it.

He should have known better.

"So, do you know if he likes you back?"

He groaned and buried his face in his hands. Of course he didn't know. He assumed not, because who would like him? Kyouka hadn't, and they'd been so tight he'd misread the signals. He was the class idiot- Shinsou would have to be legit morosexual for him to even stand a chance. And now he was left with a whole new problem: He had admitted his feelings, and they didn't lessen like he'd thought they might. No, now they were worse.

And Shinsou probably wasn't even into guys. He probably definitely wasn't into him, at any rate.


	3. Straight People

"Straight People"

Denki was beginning to think he should have just kept his crush to himself.

It wasn't that the girls were trying to out how he felt or anything (he didn't think they were), but ever since their sleepover they'd been sending him these knowing looks whenever he was anywhere near Shinsou. It was a wonder the guy hadn't noticed and asked him what the heck that was all about.

Mina especially continually encouraged him to ask Shinsou out, because "the worst he can say is no, right?"

He hadn't said anything to her any time she brought it up. Because, yeah, the worst he could _say_ was no. The worst he could do, though? He could stop being his friend. He could avoid him at every given turn, quit being his study buddy, and never speak to him again. Denki had gotten used to having Shinsou around whenever he needed him. He still considered himself part of the Bakusquad, but he also had his own side group made up of just him and Shinsou. And it was nice. And he didn't want to lose that for any reason.

Also, he was, like, 99.9% sure that Shinsou was into girls, because when they'd gone to visit Hatsume for gear adjustments, he'd been blushing the whole time she'd talked to him. Denki didn't know what she'd been saying, but he'd heard his name come up once or twice. Why she would have been talking about him, he didn't know- she'd probably been dragging him for his constant gear modification requests. Other than that, he imagined their chat was just a lot of flirting, because… well, Shinsou just didn't get red like that unless he was angry. And he hadn't been angry.

So yeah, Shinsou was into Mei, or whatever. Which was fine because he'd known he didn't have a chance anyway.

He just wished Mina would get it and stop asking him about Shinsou, as if there was even the faintest possibility of that happening. For some reason, she just didn't see what he saw- maybe it was because she cared about him and wanted him to be happy? Probably. She was sweet like that.

Man, it would be so much easier if he just liked her.

But nope. He was destined to suffer in silence. Even that was getting harder to do. He was actually starting to crave Shinsou's attention like it was food or something. Every smile, glance, touch, kept him charged but it was never enough. Because he was a greedy jerk and always wanted more.

Whenever Shinsou nudged him, he wanted to reach over and grab his hand. Every time Shinsou touched his hair, he wished it was his fingers running through the purple. Maybe he could have gotten away with that one, because he ruffled Kirishima's hair sometimes, so it could be written off as a friend thing… but he would know the truth and it felt wrong.

The worst moments, still, were whenever Shinsou leaned into his personal space to grab extra paper, or a drink, or the remote, and Denki had to resist every urge in his body that screamed to grab his face and kiss him until _he_ was the stupid one.

Somehow he'd been able to keep himself from doing anything like that, but Shinsou didn't make it easy.

It only continued getting worse when Shinsou came into class sporting a black eye and split lip. Without thinking, he hopped up from his desk and ran over to his friend.

"Shinsou! What happened?"

He stopped himself just short of touching his face, but still internally panicked over how close he'd been to doing it. As it was, Shinsou shifted away from him anyway and tugged his backpack strap which hadn't even been falling.

"Nothing."

"It doesn't look like nothing-"

"I'm fine. Just go sit."

"But-"

"It's fine." He stepped past him and made his way to where Mineta used to sit and Denki desperately wished he could switch places with Tokoyami so he could continue talking. Instead, he was forced to do as he'd been told and sit back at his desk. It didn't stop him from glancing back at him and frowning when Shinsou sighed and plopped his head into his arms like he was prepping for a nap.

What happened to him? Had that happened just now? The bruise certainly looked recent. He was practically vibrating with concern and curiosity in equal measures. Then Bakugou walked in with a huff, shoving past him and making his way to sit in front of Midoriya. He looked a little scuffed up too, and Denki was up from his seat before he could really think about it.

"Did you and Shinsou get into a fight?"

Bakugou glared up at him. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"You guys look like you got in a fight."

"Duh!" he snapped, "We helped Eraser out with some villains. Now get lost, Sparky."

"Villains?" Midoriya leaned over his desk and stared at the blond with wide eyes. "Are you okay, Kacchan?"

"Mind your own business, you damn nerd. I wasn't talking to you."

It was weird not hearing Bakugou shouting when he would've expected him to, and it made him wonder if he was hurt worse than he let on. He didn't look all that injured, but he could've been wrong. Or maybe he was being conscious of Shinsou?

Denki looked over Midoriya's shoulder to see Shinsou was rubbing his temples and clenching his eyes shut.

"What kind of quirks did they have?" He and Midoriya asked in unison and Bakugou rolled his eyes.

"Not that it's _any _of your business," he grumbled, "One of em had some kinda spike quirk and the other two had sound amplification quirks. Eraser said they were twins or something."

"Whoa! Identical quirks? That's really rare!" Midoriya's voice raised in his excitement and Shinsou grimaced. Denki bit his tongue as he realized why Bakugou was being so quiet. While he didn't get bothered by loud things, all the yelling and the noises from his explosions being amplified by the villains had probably left Shinsou's ears ringing and head splitting in two. He didn't like being around loud things or people for long.

He was about to mention that to Midoriya, who was oblivious in his eagerness to find out more, but everyone was silenced when familiar voices echoed from the hallway.

"What do you mean you it's fine? You're bleeding!"

"Mic, we're not doing this right now," Mr. Aizawa stated tiredly as he entered the classroom, the voice hero hot on his heels.

"Oh yes we are!" He made a grab for Mr. Aizawa and he dodged him, though there was a slight wobble in his step. It didn't take an observational genius to see that. Mr. Mic must have seen it too, because he gestured towards their teacher's whole body and made a noise in his throat that sounded like an unhappy bird.

"Look at you! You need to see Recovery Girl."

Mr. Aizawa rubbed at his temples before grabbing the podium. "She's there for students. I'm not going to rely on her quirk when I'm fine-"

"C'mon man, you can barely stand!"

An eye roll was followed with a rebuttal through gritted teeth. "It's just a couple of scratches. I've had worse, and now I have a class to teach."

"Eraser-"

"Mic, stop." If he meant to sound waspish he failed. Denki thought he sounded exhausted more than anything. And he was supporting more and more of his weight on the podium. "You worry too much."

Of all the reactions Denki expected from that, Mr. Mic reaching out and catching Mr. Aizawa's face between his hands was not one of them. He also didn't expect them to be standing so close- not in front of all of them. When he looked around the room, everyone was watching with rapt attention. Even Bakugou and Shinsou had looked up.

Present Mic stuck his lip out a little and shook his head. "Somebody has to worry when you won't."

"Mic-"

"You're seeing Recovery Girl, and you're seeing her now." There was no room for argument and Mr. Aizawa sighed heavily when the voice hero offered him some support. As they made their way to the infirmary, their injured teacher told them that they were not free, and that he'd be back in a minute.

"Don't move from your seats."

Obviously that order went ignored, because as soon as the pros were gone, almost everyone was out of their seats discussing what they assumed went down based on the little information they had. Although the speculations didn't get past a quick, "Did he get hurt protecting you and Bakugou, Shinsou?" from Aoyama before the yelling started.

"Hey! We were protecting him! Don't go looking down on us!"

"Does it even matter? Ribbit. Either way he's hurt," Tsu pointed out and Aoyama threw his hands up.

Everyone else was just chattering, and their voices blurred into a big wall of noise that Denki did his best to ignore. He wanted to know more about the villain fight, but it was hard to get excited about it right now when Bakugou was moodier than usual, class was on hold, and Shinsou was currently growling under his breath for people to just shut up. He had his face in his hands, like he was trying to will away a headache and Denki felt for him. This was not a great start to the rest of the day.

It probably wasn't good that his head seemed to be hurting so much.

With that thought in mind, he dropped a hand on his shoulder and motioned towards the door with his head. "Man, you should probably see R.G too, don't you think?"

"I already told you, I'm fine."

"Yeah, for sure," he nodded, layering the 'I don't believe you' tone on thick, "But it'll be quieter there."

The words earned him a tired scowl, but Shinsou got on board with the suggestion because not a minute later he was walking out of class with him.

"Where are you going, you two? We were instructed to remain seated!"

"Chill out, Iida," he waved the class rep off, "Shinsou's head hurts, so we're going to see Recovery Girl, too."

"I'm coming too!" Mina declared, hopping out of her seat.

"Great," Shinsou grumbled in a way that meant it clearly was _not_ great.

He shot her a _'wut are you doin'_ look and she responded with a grin that just oozed her _'yolo'_ energy.

"I hate you," he whispered when she passed him and her grin only got wider. "I know, right?"

"Ashido, you must get back in your seat-"

"Relax, Iida! We can't have class until Mr. Aizawa comes back anyway, right?"

None of them waited for his response.

The walk to the infirmary probably would have been painfully and awkwardly quiet if Mina hadn't come. Denki only realized just how much talking she could do when he wanted to ask questions and she kept interrupting him. As it was, she carried on the majority of the conversation that Shinsou didn't appear to want any part in.

"So~ how was it fighting some villains?"

"Fine."

"I think you mean rad as all get out," she corrected, "but that's alright. How many were there?"

"Three."

"Gasp! Which one gave you the black eye?"

"Dunno."

"Oh, cuz two of them were identical?"

"Sure," he indulged and Denki wanted to ask more about that and their quirks, and how his head was feeling now that it was a little quieter. Of course, Mina beat him to any of that.

"So level with me: Did Mr. Aizawa get stabbed at because of you, or Bakugou?"

Shinsou shot her a glare and Denki couldn't help but be on his side about that- she'd worded it kind of… mean. Mr. Aizawa said to never blame someone for your being injured in the field. Even when it obviously is their fault.

The silence that followed her question lasted for an uncomfortable couple of seconds before Shinsou finally answered.

"Me."

"Woof, that sucks," he said quietly, but he might as well have shouted it given that he'd been the only one talking right then. Because of course Mina would shut up right when he had nothing good to add to the conversation.

Shinsou was looking at him now with narrowed eyes and Mina had thinned her lips to keep from laughing at the reaction. Denki wanted to give her the finger, and had he not known about the security cameras that would have documented the very un-hero-like gesture, he would have. As it was, he sent her stink eye.

They reached the infirmary not long after that exchange and Shinsou stopped just short of entering.

"What's up?" Denki looked up at him and Shinsou shrugged. When he moved to settle into one of the chairs by the door, Denki followed suit and tilted his head.

"Um, don't you need to go inside to get healed?"

"It's just a headache."

He raised a brow.

"Seriously." Shinsou rolled his eyes. "I just need some quiet… and maybe some water."

"I gotcha!" Mina ran off before Denki could even offer to go get him some and he didn't know whether he would want to hug or strangle her when she got back. On one hand, she'd left him alone with Shinsou, so he could talk to him without worrying about anybody kibitzing, but on the other… she'd left him alone with Shinsou.

He pulled his phone out around the same time the other did and Denki chuckled softly. When Shinsou glanced at him he gestured to their devices.

"Great minds."

"Mmm." He went back to staring at his screen and Denki would've done the same if his phone would have turned on.

If there was a God above, they hated him. Of course he'd forgotten to charge it last night. Of course it was dead. Of course he had nothing to distract him.

He glanced over at Shinsou again. Focused as he was on whatever was on his phone, he might as well have been deaf to the world around him. Moments like these were some of the only ones in which he could just… opening stare at his friend. Without permission his eyes traced the lines of his face, the soft curve of his nose to his lips, which were currently thinned due to whatever he was seeing on his screen, then across his cheek, his jaw… He wondered what it would be like to run his fingers along his neck. He'd certainly dreamed of it.

The thought made his face heat up and he dropped his phone into his lap before he could zap it. That turned out to not be a great idea because the tapping his feet were doing just ended up sending the device clattering onto the floor.

"Sorry!" He yelped when Shinsou jerked in surprise. He leaned over to grab his phone off the floor right as Mina's voice returned, echoing off the walls as she continued the conversation right where she'd left off.

How she could remember what they'd even been talking about, he didn't know. He couldn't even remember what he'd been craving for lunch.

"But how sweet was it that Mr. Mic was taking care of Mr. Aizawa?"

He'd been trying not to think about it, actually. Because if he thought about that, he'd end up thinking about the way Mr. Mic had grabbed Mr. Aizawa. It hadn't been rough or chiding. It had looked super gentle and caring and… Shinsou was looking at him like he was expecting him to answer Mina- well, that was probably why he was looking at him. Not that Denki was really paying attention to anything past the question in his head that kept asking over and over… what would it feel like to hold Shinsou's face like that?

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" He withdrew the hand he hadn't fully realized he was moving. Then he realized that doing so would mean looking suspicious, so he brought it back to poke at the bruise around Shinsou's eye "That just looks really nasty. Does it hurt?"

Shinsou closed that eye and sighed. "It does now."

"Sorry."

_Nice going, Kamidummy. _

And of course, Mina had seen that and was now mouthing, "_What was that?" _while holding her hands out imploringly.

"_Shut up, shut up, shut up!"_ he mouth back, scrunching his face up in equal parts annoyance and embarrassment.

She held her hands up in mock surrender before settling beside him in the last available seat. She stared between him and Shinsou a moment and Denki made a slicing motion across his neck when she wiggled her eyebrows at him. The message seemed to get across just fine when she nodded and went back to talking.

"Ms. Midnight told me that they've been friends since they were in the Hero Course together when they were out age. I think it's really nice that they're so close even after all these years. Are you and me gonna be that good of friends when we're their age, Kami?"

"Well, obviously," he laughed, poking her cheek in play and also as a thank you for not bringing up anything that would make him uncomfortable.

What he didn't expect from that exchange was a quiet snort from Shinsou, accompanied with a mutter.

"Straight people."

The way he said it made it seem like the words should have been scoffed and it left Denki blinking owlishly at the face that was glued to a phone screen. When he saw Mina's face, her mouth hung open a little bit and she mouthed another question.

"_Is he gay?"_

Denki shook his head, because there was no way. Mina hadn't seen the way he and Mei had flirted. There was no way. No. And… if there was…

He shook his head more and he bit his tongue to keep from asking what Shinsou meant by that, because the last thing he wanted was to run the risk of opening a can of worms that he couldn't close.

Because Shinsou probably didn't mean what Denki thought he meant with that. He wasn't saying 'straight people' as in, "straight people be crazy." He was probably just saying it like, "Yeah, they're straight people," or something like that.

Probably.


	4. Cuddles?

Cuddles?

Things had been going a little better since the incident at the beginning of the week. That's what he'd decided to dub his near-blunder. Shinsou never brought it up and he was happy to keep it that way. To top it off, they'd also been spending a lot more time together as midterms drew ever closer.

Shinsou had helped him write an essay for English the night before and mentioned offhandedly that he was actually pretty good with the language- better than him, anyway. He'd even gone so far as to state that once he got a handle on whatever made him so scatterbrained, he'd probably be a great writer.

Denki felt like he'd been plugged into a lightning bolt after that, and that elation had definitely bled into the morning as they made their way to the teachers' lounge. Mr. Aizawa had told them to meet him there before classes started. Denki couldn't remember why. Something about discussing some possible alternative accommodations for him so that Shinsou overwork himself helping another student or something like that, most likely. Either that or the school was going to start paying Shinsou for his help? Yeah, probably not that one.

As much as he wanted to ask Shinsou to remind him what the meeting was for, he didn't want to bug him before he was ready to be awake. If there was one thing everyone had learned very early on when he came to live in the dorms with them, it was that Shinsou was _not_ a morning person.

So he kept quiet, and stared back and forth between the patterns on the floor and ceiling. He got so distracted doing that that when hands on his shoulders forced him to stop walking he gasped.

When he realized it was Shinsou who'd grabbed him, doing so in order to prevent him from running into Midoriya and Bakugou, he relaxed again. Then he was just left staring at the two in front of them with a quizzical look.

_Why are they in the teacher's lounge? _

"Oh, good morning guys." Midoriya offered them a smile that he quickly returned. "What are you doing here?"

"Mr. Aizawa wanted to talk."

Midoriya's brows pinched on his forehead. "Are you in trouble?"

"No," Shinsou quickly answered with a sniff. Denki smirked at how offended he sounded by the idea.

"Oh, well that's good." Midoriya rubbed his neck and then yelped when Bakugou kicked his heel.

"C'mon, nerd, All Might's not gonna wait forever."

Denki hummed. "All Might?"

_What did All might want with them?_

Midoriya continued rubbing his neck and laughed in that nervous way he did when he didn't want to answer a question but had no good reason not to. "Oh, well-"

"It's none of your damn business," Bakugou supplied for his floundering friend, glaring at Denki.

"Don't be a dick, man," Shinsou shot back and Denki choked on a guffaw. Bakugou's eye twitched and had they been anywhere but the teachers' lounge, he was sure he would have tried to blast Shinsou's face off.

As it was, Bakugou cracked his neck and tsked. "Whatever."

"C'mon, Deku." He shoved Midoriya's shoulder and headed in the direction of All Might's office.

"See you guys in class." Their shorter friend shot them a wave before disappearing behind the door.

There weren't many other teachers in the main area of the room, probably either sleeping in or in their own office spaces, so when Denki turned to Shinsou, raising an eyebrow, he didn't bother being quiet.

"'Don't be a dick,' huh?"

Shinsou shrugged a single shoulder. "What?"

"Someone's in a bad mood today," he elbowed his arm and Shinsou shoved his hands into his pockets.

"No. Just tired of him being rude to you for no reason."

_He doesn't like it when Bakugou's rude to me._

He tried to ignore the warm feeling that gave him. He didn't really succeed, but he did try, so he deserved props for that at the very least.

"Oh but he does have a reason." Shinsou frowned down at him and Denki held back a snicker when he continued. "His brain has no other setting."

Shinsou huffed a chuckle and nodded. "Seriously."

They stood there a moment smiling at one another before Shinsou tugged on his jacket sleeve and nodded towards the area of the lounge with a couch. Denki didn't know if Mr. Aizawa actually had a real office or not- he'd never asked. He'd certainly never seen him anywhere else in the lounge when he wasn't at a computer… but that wasn't saying much, since he didn't exactly hang out in the teachers' lounge often.

As they got closer, Denki could see a sliver of Mr. Aizawa's trademark black clothing from the open doorway. He followed where Shinsou pulled him and started trying to come up with something witty to greet Mr. Aizawa with- he also wasn't a morning person, so maybe he'd just grin big and ask him if it wasn't a beautiful day.

"Mr. Aizawa~, isn't it a…" he trailed off when he realized there was no way their teacher was going to hear anything he said. Not when he was passed out like that. And even if he had, Denki doubted he'd have been able to get up to loom over him with glowing eyes meant to make him cower. How he could he, when he was being crushed beneath another familiar face. How he could sleep so deeply with Present Mic on top of him like that, Denki wasn't sure. They looked really comfortable, with the voice hero's face smushed against his chest and Mr. Aizawa's arm wrapped around his waist while their legs hung over the edge of the couch.

In all honesty… they looked kind of cute, which was a weird thought to have about his teachers, but it was the only word that came to mind. He bit his tongue to keep from saying anything like that aloud, though. He didn't want to a weirdo in front of Shinsou.

For his part, Shinsou was only looking on with a look that seemed mildly amused. "Huh. Guess he forgot about the meeting."

"Y-Yeah," Denki agreed. "He must be pretty tired."

"Mmm." They both stared for a little longer before Shinsou spoke. "It's not a bad idea."

"Cuddling?"

Shinsou's attention snapped to him and Denki bit his tongue to keep from saying anything else more incriminating than what had already escaped his stupid mouth. Where was Snipe when he needed him? He wanted to fucking die.

He avoided looking at him, eyes darting anywhere that wasn't Shinsou, and it was only then that he noticed his friend hadn't released the hold he had on his jacket. Shinsou seemed to realize the same thing right then, because he uncurled his fingers and shoved his hands into his pocket.

Denki mourned the loss and wracked his brain for anything that could fix the weirdness he'd brought into the air. Something that would make Shinsou forget the word 'cuddling' had ever been said.

Of course, all his dumb brain would give him was: "So do you think they're a couple?"

It was something he'd been wondering about for awhile. Every time he'd seen them together that week, he'd been getting vibes. He didn't know whether or not those vibes were accurate, however, because a part of him just thought he was looking for things that weren't there. Things that would make him feel more normal. Encouragements. Things that would help him feel brave enough to tell Shinsou what was going through his head, even if rejection waited for him on the other end.

Things like two grown men that probably weren't together but might be, cuddling in their sleep.

But he was pretty sure he was reading his teachers wrong. He was just projecting because he knew where Present Mic's preferences lied and he sort of felt a kinship with him as a person, while Shinsou certainly held some Aizawa qualities- and he wanted nothing more than to see an example of what things could be.

Still, he'd had to ask.

Unfortunately, Shinsou didn't look like he knew what to do with that, either. "Ummm… I don't know?"

"Yeah," he laughed, but he didn't think it sounded right in his dry throat, "me neither."

"We should probably-" Shinsou was cut off when Mr. Mic began shifting and mumbling.

Denki froze, sure they were caught being creepers and were about to be scolded. Shinsou didn't, and the world shifted when the boy pulled him outside so they were hidden from sight. He could feel a warm hand wrapped around his wrist and didn't realize he was holding his breath until he felt Shinsou's breath ruffling his hair when laughed. At that point, he quickly released it in what could only be a huff as he felt his face heat up.

He probably should have been more concerned with almost being caught staring at his teachers for a length of time that nobody would consider normal, but all he could focus on was Shinsou's hand still holding onto him and preventing him from moving further away. It was so close to his hand, yet so far away. He tried not to think about it.

"That was close," he whispered. Shinsou nodded several times before pausing. He got a strange, pensive scrunchiness on his face then and Denki held onto a 'cute' comment to instead ask what was wrong.

"I don't know why I did that."

Denki was about to remind him that it was so they didn't get caught, but the finished bit of Shinsou's thought shut him up.

"Eraser wanted to talk to us. So… it would've been fine."

"Oh." Denki felt a laugh building up in his chest and put a hand over his mouth in an attempt to keep it in.

"Shut up," Shinsou released his wrist to run a hand through his still messy hair. His shoulders were bobbing with his own brand of silent laughter as he shook his head at himself, and the display made it hard to hold in at least a few giggles.

"You're stupid," he mocked before he was wracked by more mirth. In all honesty, the situation wasn't that funny, but he'd been so nervous that the energy was escaping in the only way it could.

"That's real sweet," he whispered back, unimpressed. Denki could see he was fighting off a grin, though, and if nothing else, he felt accomplished for managing that.

"So," Denki started, "who's gonna check and see if they're awake?"

"You brought it up."

He sighed dramatically, but went to peek. He'd fully expected at least one of them to be awake, but when he stuck his head into the room, the only change had been position. Mr. Aizawa had wrapped another arm around Mr. Mic, so now he was hugging him to his chest.

"That's sweet," he whispered to himself. Or, he thought it was to himself. He tensed up when he felt Shinsou against his back, then relaxed once more when he heard him uttering a quiet agreement. At least he wasn't judging him?

That only made him want to ask Shinsou if he really meant that, or if he was just being nice because he didn't want to tell him it wasn't normal for Denki to say things like that. And that only led him to thinking about the whole 'straight people' thing, and then he was back to wondering if Shinsou was actually into girls exclusively- and those were not the thoughts to be having, because it made him start having things like hope. And if there was one thing he'd learned after dozens of times being shot down by various crushes over the years, it was to never get your hopes up.

He shoved all that to the back of his mind and instead focused on the fact that Shinsou was agreeing with what he'd said and not thinking about the little blunder he'd made earlier.

_Right. So let's not make another one so soon._

Then, like he'd been reading his thoughts a moment ago, Shinsou glanced at him and offered a thin smile. "We should go."

"Yeah, we've been standing here for…"

"Awhile. Yeah."

"He'll make time to talk later if it's important."

"You right."

As they walked out side by side, back into the mostly empty corridor, Denki thought back to how Shinsou had grabbed his jacket, and then his wrist, and held onto them longer than strictly necessary both times. He didn't know why, but thoughts about how comfy their teachers had looked came back to mind then and he wondered how they'd even gotten into that position. Had they gone to sleep like that on purpose, or had Mr. Mic just flopped onto an already sleeping Mr. Aizawa and was going to get yelled at later? And if it was the former, had they fallen asleep like that in a strictly platonic sense?

The part of him that wasn't looking for role models that may not have even existed sort of hoped that was the case. It would've given him a different kind of hope: a hope that even if Shinsou wasn't into him, they could still do things like that where they could be close. It also got him hoping that sort of affection could come sooner than later as his mind wandered and he found himself wondering how nice it would be if he could fall asleep on Shinsou like that, maybe wrapped up in his arms?

_Wait no._

He blinked at his thoughts, about to chide himself for being weird when Shinsou nudged his shoulder and dragged him away from his mind.

"What're you thinking about?"

He couldn't very well tell him the truth, so he went with the always reliable answer of, "Oh, nothin'! Just zoned out again, I guess."

Oddly enough, that response only made Shinsou frown. "You've been doing that a lot lately. You sure nothing's bothering you?"

Oh no, he'd noticed that? Denki swallowed hard and looked at the rows of doors they passed so he didn't end up looking at Shinsou and telling him the truth. As easy as it had been to tell the girls about his attraction to his friend, the last thing he wanted was to actually tell him. He wasn't ready to ruin their friendship just yet.

"Naw man, I'm good. Better than good, I'm uh… ec_static. _Eh?" He jabbed a shocking finger into his shoulder and Shinsou jumped. "Get it?"

Shinsou only hummed before nudging him again, harder than last time so Denki stumbled a little bit- which, fair. Using that moment of distraction, Shinsou pulled ahead of him a little bit. Denki was thankful for that, at least- he couldn't see him freaking out from over there. He let out a small pent up sigh and wrung his hands.

What had he been thinking? He was being too odd and Shinsou had started picking up on it. That wasn't good. What if he found out?

Obviously that wasn't going to happen, because he wasn't going to happen, but still what if?

Also… Ec_static?_ What kind of lame-ass joke was that?

He groaned before moving to catch up when Shinsou waited for him at the door of their classroom.

_I'm a mess._

* * *

By the time the school day had ended, Kaminari had forgotten all about the meeting they were supposed to have. Hitoshi knew that because the blond had hopped out of his seat, asked if they were still on for 8 o'clock studying, and then run off with Kirishima and Sero when he'd given confirmation.

He could only shake his head at the guy. It was like his brain had a million tabs open and he could never get them straight. It was endearing, for sure, but it also made it difficult to get his attention sometimes. Hitoshi was pretty confident in figuring that the only time Kaminari was laser focused was during hero training classes.

It was fascinating, watching him go from being jittery and all over the place to this grounded, strategic person who Hitoshi could easily see patrolling the streets as a full-fledged hero. The consistency between his two personas was that bright, cocky grin and casual manner of speaking- like everything he was doing was an easy afterthought.

Hitoshi envied that confidence of his. Even though he'd carved out a space for himself in the 2-A class, was excelling academically, and had already received internship offers for the year, he sometimes felt out of place. It was hard not to, when everyone around him had a year of experiences he'd missed out on- he'd yet to face off against real villains, or go to any training camps, or meet the Big Three.

Eraserhead and All Might assured him he was doing well, coming into his own with impressive speed, but… he lacked the confidence everyone else seemed to come by so easily. If confidence were a physical weight, his peers had found ways to work around it while he was busy trying to figure out how to lift the damn thing off the ground.

It would have been easy enough to blame that issue on the society he'd grown up in- everyone before UA telling him he was better suited to be a villain, that he would never be accepted into a _hero_ school. His parents were the exception to the rule, and only because his mom knew how difficult life could be for someone with their kind of quirk. But the truth of the matter was that he just got in his own way. He had it in him to be confident about his quirk- he'd come closer to mastering it in the past few months than he ever had, and people actually respected him now. But… he couldn't get rid of his hangups. He still bristled when he thought someone was going to make a joke about his quirk, still flinched when his classmates came at him too quickly in a non-combative situation, and still assumed nobody wanted to talk to him and isolated himself from their groups.

Well, most of their groups. It had kind of been impossible to avoid some kind of friendship with Midoriya- he was incorrigible, and after Hitoshi realized beating him was probably never something he'd be able to do, he'd found he enjoyed his company. It was a similar story with Monoma- he couldn't deny that he was a nice guy, despite the reputation he had among the 1-A students as being "the worst." There was also Ashido and Tokoyami… he didn't even know how or when that happened. One day they'd invited themselves to the mall with him, and he hadn't been able to shake them.

He didn't even know how to figure out Kaminari. He'd figured the moment they'd met that they would end up friends in some capacity just because the blond had been so determined to make it so, but he had not expected to end up spending so much time with him. Even when he isolated himself from the others, he couldn't seem to escape him- and lately, he hadn't wanted to.

It was nice, hanging out with Kaminari. It was like he could be himself around him, even the parts he wished he could pretend didn't exist- the parts that were bitter and angry and held grudges and cried. It was like Kaminari had so much confidence it spilled over into him. Not enough to make a huge impact, but… enough to make Hitoshi see the kind of person he could be.

He wished he had even half the confidence Kaminari exuded at any given point of the day. Maybe they could propose a trade: Half his mental focus for half of his belief in himself.

Maybe then he could be brave enough to tell him how he'd been feeling.

Although, given his clinginess that morning, there was a chance Kaminari was figuring it out… but then, it _was_ Kaminari, so maybe not. His being so grabby was probably open in a tab he'd lost for the time being, and Hitoshi was fine with that.

It wasn't like he'd even meant to hold onto him so long- he hadn't meant to do anything at all, really, it just happened. A lot of things had been "just happening" between him and Kaminari as of late, and it was frustrating him. He'd shared more with the blond than he had any of his friends before- like how he had trouble sleeping, not because he'd inherited just enough of his dad's No Sleep quirk to have a constant bad case of insomnia, but because he had stress nightmares. And Kaminari shared things right back. He'd admitted how he hated being reminded of his intellectual shortcomings, how he already felt stupid enough- how he'd been embarrassed when Mr. Aizawa had assigned Hitsohi to help him out.

The upset he'd felt then, followed with the distinct urge to hug him had all been enough to clue him into the fat crush he had- at least had made him acknowledge it. He'd been trying not to focus so much on it, because there were more important things in his life than sorting out feelings- things like training, getting faster and stronger.

But still, the crush persisted and he'd found himself getting handsy with each passing day.

And to make matters worse, he kept getting mixed signals from Kaminari. He'd gone from getting annoyed with him after he'd talked with that Hatsume chick, and then he'd turned around and tried to touch his face sweetly after he'd gotten caught up with a villain. But before that, he'd been jonesing to get into the girl's sleepover? And then that morning when he'd just blurted out something about cuddling? What had _that_ been about?

It was all giving him whiplash and Hitoshi wanted to just grab Kaminari by his shoulders, sit him down, and force him to give him a straight answer. Or… hopefully a not straight answer.

He smirked at his own joke, but it felt flat on his face.

There was nothing actually stopping him from doing just that, and he knew it, but he couldn't summon the courage. Ignoring the fact that it could open the both of them up to public ridicule from those he didn't think they should be together, the last thing he wanted to do was make things uncomfortable between them and cheapen the intimacy of their heart-to-hearts if he'd been reading Kaminari all wrong. He also didn't want to be tortured by the "what-ifs" if he didn't.

Present Mic's radio-filtered words came back to him like they had every day since he'd heard them, telling him to give it a shot if he liked the guy. He'd made it sound so simple, even after telling him that coming out could be really hard- which, yeah, he'd known that long before that night.

Still, he wanted to heed that advice. He also really didn't want to mess it up. He needed to have a plan- if there was one thing the hero course had made him aware of about himself, it was that while he could adapt, he did so much better if he had a frame to work off of.

That was how he found himself heading into the teachers' lounge for the second time in the day.

He didn't know what he was going to say when he found the voice hero. In the back of his mind he had formulated a tactful approach to retrieve the information he wanted, but as soon as Mic turned around to ask what was up, Hitoshi remembered that tact wasn't so much his strong suit as bluntness was.

"Are you and Eraser a couple?"

Not wanting to potentially cause a scene or embarrass his teacher, he kept his tone hushed. It was still enough to cause green eyes to widen before Mic was laughing lightly.

"Why do you ask?"

There were a myriad of ways he could've answered that, but Hitoshi want with the one at the forefront of his mind. "Because you guys were asleep together on the couch this morning."

"Oh yeah," Mic was grinning now, a little wistfully if he was reading correctly, "guess we were. Is that it?"

His throat felt painfully dry the closer he came to asking the question he really wanted answers to. Part of him wanted to abandon the mission, because getting answers anonymously was way different than walking up to someone you respected and saying, "_Oh, by the way I'm gay can you help me get a boyfriend." _Especially when he was confident that information would make it back to his mentor if the two heroes were, in fact, together. But he was trying to be brave- trying to become more confident in his own skin. He wasn't going to turn back now.

"No," he admitted, barely talking above a mutter now, "I was wondering because… I was the caller who asked... about gay heroes. If they were allowed."

Glancing up, he saw Mic's face softened as a knowing look crossed his features. "I see. And I'm guessing this has something to do with the boy you like?"

"Kaminari." Admitting it was simultaneously the easiest and hardest thing he'd done all school year. His heart pounded against his ribs as he waited for his teacher to react.

"Oh yeah?" Mic's grin widened, if that was possible. "That's a rad choice, kiddo. He's a good kid."

Hitoshi added burning face to the list of ailments he'd picked up since beginning the conversation- he was sure wet eyes were going to be the next stage, so he wanted to finish this as soon as possible.

"So, I was wondering if you were, because if you are I wanted to know how you knew he liked you back." It came out in a rush and he held his breath afterwards. He stared straight into Mic's eyes but didn't know if he was actually focusing on him, or if he was doing it to ground himself.

As if sensing that, Mic rested his hand on his shoulder and gave it a light squeeze.

"Alright Listener, I'll level with you: Yes, Aizawa and I are a couple- you can't go telling people this, okay? He's an underground hero- we don't want to give the media and excuse to put him in the spotlight. We're trusting you with this."

Of all the people they had to worry about outing them, he should have been the lowest on the list. He inclined his head sharply to try and convey that. Mic squeezed his shoulder again.

"And to be honest, I never really could tell if he liked me the way I liked him. I just asked him out one day and he didn't say no."

Oh. So that advice to just ask the guy out if he liked him… he really had meant it. And he'd done it himself.

"You look disappointed," Mic tilted his head and Hitoshi didn't know how to explain that he wasn't disappointed, so much as… nervous. If he was really going to ask Kaminari out- at the very least, tell him how he felt…

"How did you know he wouldn't turn you down?"

The laugh that earned was loud enough several heads turned their way. Hitoshi waved awkwardly at Thirteen and they waved back before going back to doing whatever they'd been doing. When he looked back at his teacher, he was shaking his head.

"I didn't, Shinsou. I was totally terrified he was going to turn me down. But if one of us never took the first step, we never would've gotten anywhere, ya dig?"

Oh, he dug. He just wished there was an easier way. He said as much and Mic offered him a sympathetic hum.

"I hear you. But sometimes there are no ways around these things. In order to find out how Kaminari feels, you have to ask him- or tell him how you feel."

"But I don't want to ruin our friendship… and… I don't want anyone to hurt him." He didn't care what people did to him anymore, but he got the feeling Kaminari would never have dealt with the hurt caused by taunts of that caliber. His eyes were starting to burn and Hitoshi glared at the floor, refusing to let his fears and nervousness get to him.

"Shinsou, if anyone tried to hurt either of you for being yourselves, they would have a whole troop of heroes to deal with." Mic's voice had taken on an unfamiliar aggressiveness to it and Hitoshi blinked in surprise. "And I'm not just talking about us teachers."

The reminder that he had classmates now that would probably sooner protect them than let anything bad happen was still a bit of a strange thing to acknowledge, but it did make him nod slowly. It did make him wonder what their reactions would be if he were to come out- as far as he knew, nobody else in their class had done that yet. Although his money was on Jiro doing that any time, now. But, would they be as accepting as Mic seemed to assume?

"But," Mic continued, "he's a sweet boy- I don't think he'd let your liking him ruin what you guys have. And for all you know, he likes you right back and talking things out will make your friendship that much stronger. I know it's scary -trust me, I do. But at the end of the day, if you want any answers, you have to ask."

He hadn't thought about it like that. "Oh."

"Okay, I'm gonna hug you now." He didn't register the man's words until arms were already wrapped loosely around his shoulders. It was weird, being hugged by one of his teachers, but he wasn't uncomfortable… and actually, it was kind of nice. The contact certainly helped him relax a little bit, and Hitoshi returned the embrace briefly before stepping back.

He turned to leave after that. There was some things he needed to think about. Also some plans to make. "Thanks, Mr. Yamada."

"Anytime. And hey-" Hitoshi paused and looked back to see Mic giving him two thumbs up, "-you got this."

He hoped so.


	5. Going Out

Going Out

"_I like you."_

Three simple words. Easy to string together and easier to hear, yet Hitoshi couldn't seem to say them.

He'd had ample opportunity to do so. He could have said something during the flight, but decided against it when he realized how uncomfortable it would be for everyone if he got turned down. He could have said it during the tour of the stadium they'd be competing in, when everyone had walked ahead, but he hadn't wanted to cause a scene. He could have said something when they were unpacking their suitcases in the hotel, but…

To put things simply: He'd been stalling.

Granted, a good excuse could have easily been that the timing was wrong. In just two days they would be entering the week-long International Sports Festival, the widely televised event which was held biennially and was being hosted that year by the United Heroics Academy in America… which meant everyone had serious jet lag. To say everyone was stressed would be an understatement- it wasn't like he was an exception. He was both excited and incredibly nervous to be representing UA and putting himself on the radar of pro heroes across the globe.

The entire class had been discussing the thrill of that pressure for the majority of the flight over, so he knew they felt the same way. Everyone was hoping to place high, if not win, and had already been given a talking to by the Eraser about sportsmanship and not being bitter if they didn't come close to achieving either of those goals. There would be a lot of students competing, after all.

There was all of that to deal with, and Hitoshi did not want to talk with Kaminari and risk throwing him off his game. If he caused him to mess up during the Festival, he would feel horrible. He wanted to win just as badly as anybody else, but he wouldn't intentionally sabotage his classmates.

It wasn't a good time. He could talk to him after they returned home.

"Shinsou? Um, are you okay?"

He banished his internal planning to blink at Midoriya, who's expression was pinched in concern. He sighed and let his head fall back against the couch they were seated on in the private lounge area. "I guess."

"You gue- you're not worried about the Festival, are you?" He tapped his finger against his chin and Hitoshi inwardly groaned when he went into a ramble. "It would make sense if you were, I suppose. This is your first public event as a part of the Hero Course. Even if you're one of the most level headed people here, this is a pretty intense event- over four hundred people and the majority of them have probably had more training than you because they've had access to more resources, and-"

"God, don't start this crap up again, you damn nerd." Bakugou's groan was more exasperation than any kind of anger, but it did the job and Midoriya quieted with an apology. Hitoshi sent the blond a grateful look which was acknowledged with a grunt.

While Midoriya was not wrong, Hitoshi found that none of those things bothered him as much as they should have. Perhaps that was because all of it was nothing new to him- the Sports Festival at UA had been just as important in his head at the time. For everyone in the Hero Course, it had been an excuse to show off their various abilities and fight their friends to settle bets. For him, the stakes had been so much higher. He'd been competing to win, not because he wanted accolades or special attention from hero agencies, but because he'd known it had been one of his only shots at bringing attention to the fact that he belonged in the Hero Course. Losing that had been more than a blow to his character.

This time around, he was already where he wanted to be. There were no higher stakes that he was overly concerned with. He was going to try to win, but this time it would for showing others that he was just as strong and capable as any other aspiring hero there. It would be a win for himself and his classmates and school. It would be a show of gratitude to Eraser for all the work he'd put into him as a mentor. But, if he didn't win, it wouldn't be a soul-crushing failure like the loss at UA had been.

Maybe that was why the Kaminari thing wouldn't leave him alone. He wasn't stressed enough about anything else.

_Great._

Glancing around the room, at the couple of them that were there, everyone else seemed to be in a similar boat in so far not worrying too much about the outcome of the Festival. Perhaps they were the only ones feeling that way and everyone else was keeping their nerves to themselves. Either that, or he was reading everyone very wrong. He doubted that, though- he'd grown pretty adept at reading his classmates.

It made sense. They had faced off against real villains and life and death situations so many times, events like these most likely didn't even compare- Hitoshi would go so far as to imagine they were child's play. They would still take it seriously, just like they took all of their training seriously, but they didn't seem to be losing sleep over it.

Granted, they still had a couple of days to get there.

As he thought about that, he found himself turning back to Midoriya. He was watching him closely, that same concern clouding his face. Hitoshi wanted to be annoyed with his persistent caring, but he couldn't do it. The guy was like a mini All Might with his heroic empathy, and as much as he tried resisting the attention when he'd first joined the class, now he resigned himself to it. It was in Midoriya's nature to care and help, which he definitely understood.

That was why he sighed one more time before raising a tired brow at him. "What is it?"

"You seem distracted. Sorry! That was rude..." He was pressing his index fingers together and Hitoshi rolled his eyes at the nervous gesture.

"It's fine. But don't worry, it's not the Sports Festival."

"Oh okay." A pause. "Then… if you don't mind me asking. What is it?"

It wasn't that loaded of a question, but it still made him clench his jaw and look away. If he told him that it was personal he knew Midoriya would leave him alone and not pry, and that certainly had an appealing quality to it. But… doing that would do nothing in helping him come clean to Kaminari. But then, there was also the fact that coming out to Midoriya now would mean coming out to everyone in the room.

He gave a cursory scan of the area once more. It was still only himself, Midoriya, Bakugou, Kirishima, Sero and Tokoyami. Not even half of their class, and all of them would be able to keep a secret if he asked them to… and all of them trustworthy in his mind. Everyone in their class was, but there were only so many he actually allowed to know anything about his life outside of school. Even if he and Bakugou didn't always get along, he knew the blond was a steel trap.

It would be a first step.

And if it went awry, Eraser was only a couple of doors down if he couldn't brainwash anyone. Not that he was anticipating anyone freaking out- they were heroes in training. It would be okay.

Making his decision, Hitoshi felt his pulse pick up when he looked somewhere past Midoriya's shoulder and answered.

"I'm gay."

His voice was a lot steadier than he'd been expecting it to be, and for that Hitoshi was proud of. However, the silence that followed that admission made him want to curl up and disappear. He didn't know what he'd been expecting exactly, but it had been more animated than what he was getting. Sweat was beading along his forehead and he resisted the impulse to wipe it away as he forced himself to look around the room once more.

Instead of getting a good look at all of their faces, he was met with the sight of Kirishima's arms spread out right before he was being pulled into a short hug.

_What?_

Kirishima released him before he could shrink back from the embrace and was grinning ear to ear. "Dude, that's great!"

"It-It is?"

"Yeah! Being able to tell us that… that's just, super manly!" He pumped his fist and went to flop back down neck to Bakugou, who Hitoshi saw now hadn't even bothered looking up from his phone. Apparently he was either unimpressed or just didn't care… either way, even though he'd had no preconceived notions about how anyone would react… he hadn't expected the lack of one from the blond.

The phantom feeling of being hugged lingered with the shock the affection had brought to his system. It was only made worse when Midoriya leaned over to give him one, a soft smile on his face. Hitoshi did pull back from that one, because there was only so much touching he could handle in a day and he wasn't keen on meeting that quota within two minutes of baring so much himself to his classmates.

"Well, thanks for trusting us enough to tell us that," Midoriya said, "I'm guessing it wasn't easy…"

Hitoshi shook his head in affirmation, about to tell him that he appreciated that when Bakugou cut him off with a question that made heat flare up his ears. "And you got a thing for Kaminari, don'tcha."

It didn't even sound like a question. He had no clue how the blond would have known that and he narrowed his eyes at him in suspicion. Bakugou looked up from his phone long enough to roll his eyes at the expression.

"Oh, come on, it's obvious as shit that you like him. Even Deku noticed."

"What?" Hitoshi wiped back around to stare at Midoriya. He was sure he looked accusatory and he didn't care if he made the guy break out in a sweat.

"W-Well, I mean, I wouldn't say it's obvious… but I was guessing there was something… going on."

Oh great. So not only was it obvious, but it was super obvious!

_Wait. Oh… shit._

The panic must have shown on his face because Sero hopped into the conversation to soothe his nerves. "I doubt Denki's noticed. If it makes you feel better, I didn't suspect anything. Neither did Fumikage, right?"

"Although some saw the desires of your heart, they were not bared to all," he confirmed. Then, before Hitoshi could take a second to be amused by his word choice, Tokoyami leaned against Sero's chest and asked, "Is that why you have been nervous?"

He released the breath he'd been holding and nodded slowly. "I didn't know what you guys would think about it- if I asked him out."

"We'd say go for it!" Kirishima shouted before the words fully left his mouth.

"If he makes you happy and you make him happy, that's all that matters," Deku agreed and Sero grinned, nodding along.

Bakugou shrugged. "S'your life."

That might have been the most encouraging thing he had ever heard from the blond and he took a moment to appreciate that it had been directed at him before Sero spoke.

"Yeah, and nobody here is gonna judge you for it. Heck, pretty sure half of us here aren't fully straight."

"Wait what?" It was out before Hitoshi could even fully comprehend what he'd heard. By the time he had, Sero's arms were casually but pointedly wrapped around Tokoyami's middle and Hitoshi was taking a long second to grasp the fact that they were… that, and he'd never noticed.

"Wait." He pointed between the two with a slight frown. "You two are…"

"Indeed." Tokoyami nodded and Hitoshi felt like a complete oblivious idiot. There he'd been worrying about what they might think of him if he came out and his friends had been together the entire time.

He'd been worrying for nothing the whole time. If his friends were accepting of him, he didn't care what the rest of the world thought.

_Screw the timing, _he thought suddenly and got up from the couch, knocking Midoriya off balance and startling the others.

"I gotta go," he informed them all before heading into the hall, forcing himself to walk like a normal person even when every nerve in his body was screaming at him to just get to their room now so he could tell Kaminari what he'd been putting off for way too long.

He was so eager to get to their room that when he was inside, he realized he didn't have a plan for how he wanted to do this. Did he just say "I like you"? Did he tell him he thought they should date? What would be a good way to go about it?

For his part, Kaminari was oblivious to his internal trepidation, tapping away at his laptop keys. When he realized he was no longer alone he waved at him and turned his computer screen around to show him whatever was open.

"Hey man, check it out: I found out who's competing in the Festival. There's a lot of cool lookin' quirks out there… makes me a little nervous about the quirks you can't see in the pictures, y'know?" He chuckled.

Hitoshi knew he should have followed up with an answer to keep that conversation going, but he also knew that if he didn't say what he was going to say, he might not ever say it. So, while Kaminari was probably expecting an agreement or consolation, what he got was his blurted, "Do you wanna go out with me?"

"Eh…?" Kaminari froze with a hand poised over his keyboard, his eyes black while his jaw was stuck half open. In reality that only lasted for a few seconds, but to Hitoshi it might as well have been hours.

The wait was worth it, however, when Kaminari smiled up at him and put his hands in his lap. "Sure. Where do you wanna go?"

He hadn't even known what to say to start in the first place, so he definitely hadn't gotten that far in the planning stage. Not that it mattered much to him one way or another. He was still reeling over how easy that had been and how casual Kaminari was being about the whole thing- like he'd just asked if he enjoyed playing pac-man and not like he'd asked him out on a date. That left him shrugging.

"Wherever you want."

"Cool! How about the mall? I heard that the shopping centers here are humongous! Plus I need to find some souvenirs to bring back to mom and dad."

"Yeah, that's a great idea." He was smiling like an idiot at that point and he didn't even mind it. "Do you wanna shoot for leaving around six?"

Kaminari's grin was bright as the sun. "Yeah!"

* * *

"Mina, Kyouka, Eijirou!"

Their heads turned just in time to see slide into the wall. Running through the hotel had been labelled an "off limits activity," especially when wearing socks, but it had kinda of been an emergency, so he'd decided it was okay. His throbbing nose would've disagreed with him, but he hadn't cared because in the grand scheme of things, it hadn't been important.

"What?" Eijirou snorted at his antics and Denki gestured wildly as he explained why he'd been yelling for them.

"I need you guys to come with me and Shinsou to the mall."

"You and-" Kyouka scoffed softly. "Why?"

"Because he wanted to get out of the hotel, but I cannot be alone with him right now."

That would've been the worst form of torture.

"Why not?" Eijirou tilted his head and Denki realized his mistake a little too late. He opted to pretend he didn't hear him and instead stuck his lip out at the girls.

"Please," he whined, "I'll buy you something."

"You don't have to do that," Mina shook her head and hopped off the end table she'd been perched on. "Of course we'll go with, right guys? I _love_ malls!"

"Yeah, I guess I wouldn't mind the distraction," Kyouka admitted around the same time Eijirou gave a lopsided smile and nodded.

_Thank God,_ he'd thought at the time. Because at least with them there, he couldn't make a complete fool out of himself like he almost had when Shinsou had asked to hang out and he'd nearly mistaken the invitation for him asking him out on a date. Yeah, nobody wanted something dumb happening, like him trying to hold Shinsou's hand.

Which was how he found himself in the middle of Westfield Southcenter mall with his four friends and zero temptation to grab onto Shinsou. Although, given the way purple hair whirled back and forth as he tried to take in all the sights and people around them, maybe Shinsou could've used someone to ground him. Denki knew crowds weren't his favorite things in the world- he wasn't going to panic in them, but he still didn't like em.

They'd hit up a few random stores. The first ones being the loudest looking that grabbed their attention, followed by some clothing stores that played to their different styles. It was a little disappointing to know that the clothes they had there were pretty much the same as the ones back home, but it had still been fun. There had been some decorative shops where he'd managed to pick up some souvenirs for his parents, too.

After that, they just walked through the shopping center until they found themselves in the food court. Kyouka and Mina had disappeared to go to the bathroom and Eijirou had gone with them, saying it was for the same reason, but had sent him a wink. Denki got the impression from that that he'd gone to make sure they stayed safe, but he hadn't wanted to say anything because they would've gotten upset and told him they could handle themselves. He was a good guy.

While they waited for those three to return he and Shinsou found an empty table for the group. Well, he found a table and Shinsou trailed behind him. Quietly. He'd been really quiet the entire time out, Denki noticed. And to make matters worse, every time he went to talk to Shinsou he'd had a sad look about him- he'd tried to hide it each time, but had been impossible for him to miss. It was a little like the one he was wearing now, when he thought he couldn't see him. Denki wasn't sure what that was about, but he didn't like it.

"Hey," he nudged Shinsou from where he sat next to him and frowned when he did that thing again, trying to cover up his unhappiness with a half smile. Denki wasn't up for it.

"What's wrong?" He asked. "Are you not having fun? Cuz I want you to have fun, too. If you're not, just say something and we can go do something else. The guys won't mind."

The last thing he wanted was for Shinsou to be having a crappy time when going out had been his idea in the first place. And he would feel like the worst if he'd picked a place that made him miserable. He wanted Shinsou to have just as good a time as he was. As it was, he appeared surprised that he'd noticed something off about him at all, which… yeah that hurt a little bit. He'd hoped that all their time together would've driven home the fact that he cared about him enough to catch these sorts of things.

"I'm fine." Denki didn't buy that and it had to have shown on his face, because Shinsou put his hands up after that and gave a more genuine smile. "Seriously. I'm just tired. I think it's just jet lag. Really, I'm good."

Denki narrowed his eyes and studied him for a moment. What he said sounded reasonable enough and Shinsou wasn't exactly a known liar… so he supposed he had to believe him.

"Woof, that's rough, buddy." He laughed lightly and Shinsou shrugged before glancing around them again. Denki couldn't see his face, but he had the distinct feeling that he had that sad-ish (tired?) face back on.

He really did wish there was something he could do to make him feel better.

Like hug him and not let go until he asked him to. Or rub soothing circles across his knuckles, or- he shook his head free of those thoughts and bit his lip. He'd been doing so well, not thinking about something that wasn't going to happen, but of course as soon as his friends left him alone with Shinsou they would come flooding right back.

Where were they? They'd been gone for awhile. Or maybe it felt like a while because he was with Shinsou. Either way, he was needing them and they weren't there.

Denki searched the sea of people for familiar faces, hair, or color combinations. He didn't find them, but he did find something that caught his attention. He felt his eyebrows inching up onto his forehead as he stared at a couple walking past their table. One tall with sleek fashion sense and one short with the loudest mismatched outfit he'd ever seen, both with matching dark hair, they weren't anything remarkable to look at. But it was the fact that they were holding hands, and were both clearly men that made him stare.

As they walked past the nearby fountain, the shorter guy said something that caused the taller to lean over and press a kiss to his cheek. Denki almost gaped at that. It wasn't common to see public displays of affection back home, and it was even more uncommon to see couples of the same gender doing it. Seeing it done so openly in a place filled with so many people… it was strange, but he couldn't deny that it put a warmth in his chest that he never felt seeing straight couples exhibit PDA.

Without meaning to, he glanced over at Shinsou and noticed his eyes following the same couple. His expression was the same unreadable one he put on sometimes when they were hanging out in his room and Denki wondered what he was thinking when he saw them. Was he grossed out, or was he fascinated? Was he imagining that couple as them? Was he seeing their affection for one another and thinking, "God, I wish that were me."

Denki hadn't registered he'd said that until he caught Shinsou's reaction… which was to snort and respond. "Seriously, though."

His heart stuttered in his chest and Denki stared at Shinsou with eyes that he didn't think were wide, but really should have been. Because… what had that meant? Had Shinsou been saying what it sounded like he was? Or had Denki read him wrong and he hadn't been staring at the couple at all? What if he'd just been zoning out and had absentmindedly agreed with him?

Somewhere between that reaction and his internal panic Shinsou had started staring at him again. Once Denki got a handle on his thoughts -or at least shoved them down- he couldn't help but interpret the look his counterpart was giving him was expectant.

What he expected of him, he hadn't a clue. He certainly couldn't have been thinking he was going to say anything about that moment, which they would both likely agree was kind of funny. With that in mind, he just found himself laughing the interaction off. He wasn't sure what else to do, so it was always the safest bet to just act like everything going on was a joke. It was what he was good at.

"We should probably find the others and head back to the hotel, don't you think?"

Shinsou's face fell again and Denki didn't know why, but he felt he was somehow responsible.

"I suppose." He agreed, "it's getting dark."

"Right!" Denki got up from his seat a little too quickly and gave another laugh that shook with nervousness. "We don't want Mr. Aizawa getting mad because we're out past curfew."

"Or because we didn't ask to leave in the first place!" Mina giggled from out of nowhere, throwing an arm around his shoulders. Denki yelped at her sudden appearance but didn't push her away. At least she could act as a barrier between him and Shinsou.

As if reading his thoughts and wanting no part in them, however, she slipped away almost immediately and went to stand by Eijiro, who was asking Shinsou if they were leaving already. When confirmed that they were, he puffed out his cheeks and sighed. Nobody fought the decision though, and just like that they were all heading for the nearest exit.

As they walked, Denki'd mind wandered back to that frown that had affixed itself to Shinsou's face after he'd laughed. He didn't get what it was about and tried wracking his brain for anything that he could have done to cause it.

That endeavor was interrupted when someone nudged his shoulder. When he checked to see who it was, Shinsou smiled down at him. It wasn't a sad smile this time and Denki felt his emotions being thrown through a loop. One minute he was making Shinsou upset and the next he was getting smiles and gentle shoves- he didn't get it.

For the moment, he decided he wasn't going to analyze it- there would be plenty of time for that when he was laying in the bed across from Shinsou's later that night.

"What?"

Shinsou nudged him again and Denki couldn't fight his own little smile. He didn't know why Shinsou did that. It had been happening a lot more frequently than ever, and while it was fun because it was an affection he didn't seem to share with anyone else, it also left Denki more confused than ever every time he did it. He wasn't about to stop him, though, no matter how much it made his head spin, because it made him feel special.

"Did you have fun?" Shinsou tilted his head and Denki nodded.

"Yeah." He glanced back at where Mina and Eijirou were talking animatedly at a more subdued Kyouka, grabbing at her bags but never actually taking them from her hands. He smirked at their antics and added, "I think we all did. You?"

The smile on Shinsou's face vanished immediately and when he answered his tone was flatter than Denki had heard in a long time. "Sure."

It was like he was teleported back in time to when Shinsou had first joined 2-A and kept distant from everyone. It didn't matter that he'd said yes to having fun- it was so clearly a lie, though he had no clue why he would bother lying about something like that. Once again he was left feeling like he was somehow connected to Shinsou's sudden mood shift, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why.

It was going to be a long week.


	6. Oblivious

Oblivious

Everyone had thought after winning the Sports Festival their teacher would have been in a better mood. However, as soon as they'd touched down in their home country his mood had seemed to worsen. Nobody could understand what the problem was.

Nobody but Hitoshi.

As soon as they'd returned to classes and Midoriya had been congratulated by Principle Nezu on his win, the announcement that he would be substituting for Present Mic's class had been made. Apparently he'd been asked to be a guest judge for a pop idol competition in Germany and Nezu had encouraged him to go.

While his classmates had attempted to sound excited for their teacher, it had been impossible to miss the looks of trepidation shared at the idea of being taught by the Principle for the next week. Hitoshi couldn't have cared less about that, more concerned with how the sudden development would affect their homeroom teacher's mood.

For his part, Eraser didn't seem to be all that bothered… at least for the first few days. However, as they reached the middle of the week and news arrived that Present Mic had got caught up in meetings and networking and would be extending his stay in Germany, Hitoshi had noticed a sizable shift in Eraser's overall demeanor.

The fuse for his patience had been cut shorter than it already was, his tolerance for the class's normal antics all but disappearing. He'd also gotten rougher during their one-on-one training sessions that, even after getting into the Hero Course, his mentor had insisted the continue with until he was completely caught up and on the same fighting level as everyone else.

That day in particular had been a rough one for Hitoshi- he'd been off his game after having a rant session with some of the guys about how mad he still was with what Kaminari had pulled the week before.

"_If he didn't want to go out with me, he could have just said so! He didn't have to do… whatever the hell that was." _

"_I totally get that, man, but… I dunno, it's Kami. Are you sure he understood that you were asking him out on a date?"_

"_I think I made it pretty obvious."_

Stewing on that particular memory had left him open for an attack and Eraser hadn't hesitated to take the shot and knock him flat on his ass. It was a cheap move and they both knew it. Given the stern expression Eraser wore, he didn't care. That was fine with him. They had both had less than pleasant weeks and he had just as much pent up anger as the hero.

Left with a bloody nose, Hitoshi took his current feelings towards Kaminari and got right back up to lash out at his teacher.

"You're distracted," Eraser commented as he sent him back into the mat, a knee pressed into the small of his back.

Hitoshi grunted and rolled out of the hold like he'd been taught and couldn't help but glare at the man.

"You're one to talk," he snapped, wiping away some of the blood that had made it onto his upper lip.

The Eraser's eyes narrowed and this time when he went to kick him, Hitoshi was ready. He caught his leg, moving to wrap the capture weapon around it, but Eraser had already gotten himself loose and dropped to a crouch. A second later Hitoshi was crumbling under his own weight and the backs of his knees stung.

This time, when Eraser knocked him over and tied his wrists with the capture weapon, Hitoshi didn't attempt to escape. That dragged a scowl out of the man and Hitoshi groaned when he brought his face closer as if to study him.

"Mic's being gone isn't clouding my judgement. Whatever you're thinking about is making you slower."

"Maybe I'm just tired," he snapped. He didn't need a lecture from him right now. He didn't _want_ one.

"Why aren't you taking this seriously?"

The accusation made his annoyance flare and Hitoshi bit back a growl. It would do him no good to make his teacher genuinely angry with him when he was taking time out of his day to train him. Still, blowing off steam with him in this way- with less talking and teaching and more good old fashioned messy sparring… it was nice.

Even if he was still mad at Kaminari, he could feel his mind fog clearing every time Eraser threw him against the mat. And every blow he managed to land on his teacher was a victory that made him feel the slightest bit better. He'd gotten to the level that fighting with Eraser actually made the pro break out a sweat, so that was something. He didn't want the session to suddenly become constructive because Eraser had noticed something off in his combat approach.

Hitoshi wanted to keep him a little irritated.

With that in mind, he rolled his eyes, still not struggling. "What makes you think I'm not?"

As soon as Eraser opened his mouth to answer Hitoshi smirked. "You're-"

He got no further than that before Hitoshi ordered him to released him and step back. The brainwashing only lasted up to the "release" step before he felt his quirk being erased and he was being glared at with glowing red eyes.

"That was a cheap shot." Even through the harsh expression, Hitoshi could the hint of pride in his teacher's voice. It was nice, getting that slight bit of attention for using his quirk. It felt good to be able to best someone in a fight so effortlessly- even if it was only for a moment and it didn't win him the fight.

"You're the one who told me take 'em when I could," he shot back, getting to his feet and preparing for the next attack.

This was good. Getting roughed up, trading blows both verbal and physical, laughing a bit. It got his mind off other things and for that, Hitoshi was grateful. He got the impression that it was a reciprocated sentiment each time Eraser had a hint of a smile on his face, too.

* * *

"Look, all I'm saying is that he's acting weird!"

There was no real disagreeing with that statement, although it took Denki a full minute of listening to the group talk before he realized they were talking about Mr. Aizawa and not Shinsou. Honestly though, they might as well have been- Shinsou had been acting all kinds of weird ever since the Sports Festival.

At first Denki had thought it was because of the stress, then because he hadn't won. But when he'd found out that Shinsou hadn't cared about any of that -not really. Apparently he hadn't any grand delusions that he would actually make it to the final round- he'd been forced to think back further. The only thing that came to mind was the day at the mall, when he'd started acting funny. But he hadn't been able to figure out what had even gone wrong to put him in that mood that day in the first place.

Not only had he been quieter since then, but he'd gone back to being moody- like when they'd first met him and had reminded them all of early day Todoroki, right down to the avoiding talking to him part. It was beyond confusing. He wanted to ask the guys about it as he sat next to Tsu, but as it stood now, everyone was just speculating on what it was that had their teacher so on edge and constantly checking his phone- they hadn't even known Mr. Aizawa owned a phone before that week.

"I'm gonna go with: secret mission," Kyouka was saying, with Midoriya, Uraraka, Kirishima and Shoji backing up the theory.

"Are you certain it isn't just insomnia?" Momo was tapping her chin, Todoroki and Tokoyami nodding along in agreement.

"It could just be that he's got a lot of school paperwork," Sero thought. The rest of the majority seemed to find that the most plausible until Mina tsked loudly and crossed her arms.

"I think you guys are missing the bigger picture."

"What do you mean?" Hagakure leaned closer in curiosity, and even if Denki was a bit distracted by his own thoughts, he couldn't deny also wanting to know what her guess was going to be.

"Let's think about it objectively. One-" she held up a finger with each point she made, "-he's grumpy. Two, he's up like, all night on his phone and/or computer. Three, he's… sloppier. Like, he's not even _trying_ to look like a healthy human right now. So… I'm going with: he's got a girlfriend and she's not around right now."

It wasn't a bad assumption, honestly, but something about it didn't sit right with him. At least he wasn't the only one either, because while Aoyama and Hagakure agreed with her, Iida threw a hand out and stated that he was probably just talking to Present Mic, and "speculating about the potential reasons for Mr. Aizawa's lifestyle changes is extremely disrespectful!"

Tsu hummed and pointed out that he just made a speculation, and that had Iida sputtering.

As soon as Present Mic was mentioned, Denki knew that's what hadn't been sitting right. While everyone else wondered why their teacher would've been talking to Mr. Mic, he remained quiet. He didn't want to assume anything about either of his teachers, but after seeing how close they were, whether it was friendship or something else, he could easily believe Iida's assumption was the truth. It made the most sense to him- he knew that he was certainly in some state of mental distress with the sudden lack of Shinsou in his life. If he could feel that way about a friend of a couple of months, he could understand how Mr. Aizawa could be there too.

"What about you, Kacchan?" Midoriya asked the blond who had been quiet up to that point. "What do you think?"

"I think this is stupid and I don't give a damn," he intoned as he made marks on his homework.

"I second that."

Denki's head snapped up when Shinsou's comment reached his ears. His hair was plastered to his forehead and he had a towel slung across his shoulders… and he was wearing a tight tank top. He swallowed hard, diverting his thoughts away from wherever that fact may have led them and instead wondered just how long he'd been standing there.

When Shinsou glanced his way, he sent him a small smile and wave. He wanted to say something, but the words stuck in his throat. Their only interactions as of late had consisted of Shinsou helping him with his homework, and even that had become a tense affair that they did at the kitchen table instead of one of their bedrooms. He didn't know what he was supposed to say. So… wave.

Shinsou offered him a nod before announcing to the others that he was gonna turn in.

Denki watched his retreating back for longer than was strictly necessary and only stopped because someone cleared their throat to bring that conversation back to Mr. Aizawa. He sighed and pulled his phone out. He had no interest in the current topic. He did have an interest in getting to the bottom of whatever was going on with Shinsou, however. With a sigh he typed in a search for _how to know if a person is mad at you or just mad_. If the internet had no answers for him, then he really was screwed.

* * *

Even before the trip to America Hizashi had been insanely busy. When he hadn't been grading papers, coming up with lesson plans or working on radio playlists, then he was being dragged away for interviews after his recent public villain takedown. It had been weeks since they had seen each other for more than ten minutes outside of school. And that had been _before_ the International Sports Festival.

Calculating all of that, plus the extended Germany trip, they hadn't properly seen one another for over a month.

It should not have been that large an issue, since they had gone for longer periods of time with zero contact whatsoever when he'd had his undercover missions. It wasn't a huge deal in all honesty. It just… hadn't been the most ideal situation.

It certainly hadn't helped that the class had taken it upon themselves to find out why he wasn't in the mood for any of their antics. They hadn't gotten any answers, of course, which only made them all the more unbearable to be around. It was bad enough he had Eri constantly asking when "Mic dad was going to come home."

She was the least difficult of all his kids to manage and she wasn't even a teenager. Shouldn't it have been the other way around?

He was dragged out of his musings when the kids began filtering in through the door and taking their seats. They were oddly quiet and orderly about the whole thing which was suspicious enough without the added smirk Shinsou was sending him.

Ever sing Hizashi had told him about their relationship Shinsou had been keen on stopping by the teachers' lounge and chatting with them. Or trying to- he or Nemuri always kicked him out, much to Hizashi's displeasure. Shouta could not see the rationality of hanging out with teachers when one could be spending time with their peers. And, in Shinsou's case, Kaminari.

Once everyone had sat down they stared expectantly at him. For some reason, he got the feeling it wasn't to hear what he had to tell them about future academics.

"What?"

There was once a time when his flat tone left them unsure of whether or not they should speak. Now, most of them were immune. It was almost impressive- past classes hadn't managed that until their 3rd or 4th years.

"Did you hear the news about Mr. Yamada?"

It wasn't any of their business and he was half tempted to ignore Aoyama's question. However, he also couldn't find a good reason to not answer them- there would be no harm in it. None that he could see anyway, but who knew when it came to his class.

"The news that he'll be back to teaching tomorrow? Yes. The Principle informed all the staff yesterday."

"Wha~t? Yesterday? He told us today." Ashido pouted and he sighed inwardly. Between that and knowing he would have to wait until later in the evening to see Hizashi, he concluded it was going to be a long day. He could feel it in his bones. His tired, tired bones.

"How sad. Now, let's discuss all of your results from the last fitness test."

The entire class groaned and he felt a smirk creep up on him. At least if he was going to suffer, he wouldn't be alone.

* * *

He was out the door as soon as classes were over. Normally he would have lagged behind for training Shinsou or in case anyone had questions. But tonight they would have to be on their own.

Hizashi was scheduled to be back in less than two hours at that point and Shouta didn't plan on letting him leave the dorms once he stopped by. Which meant he had a space in need of cleaning.

It was one thing for Hizashi to know he'd missed him and another for him to know no self-care measures had been implemented in his absence and he'd been a slob the entire time. The easy explanation for that would be to say it had been a rough couple of weeks for both of them and cleaning hadn't been a main priority; between Hizashi running around for work and _his_ work with patrols and preparing for the Sports Festival trip there had been little time for anything. However, he wasn't going to let his husband return to a huge mess that he would then feel the need to clean. He deserved to relax after such an eventful trip. They both did.

He'd briefly entertained the idea of picking him up from the airport, but tossed it out when they'd discussed how there would likely be media there asking for details pertaining to his experience overseas. It had been a nice thought in theory, but in practice it would have been a disaster.

That ended up just fine, through, because by the time he'd finished cleaning to "Zashi standards" a text was waiting for him, telling him to come downstairs and help with bags. He grinned at the string of excited emoticons followed by a ridiculously posed picture of his husband against the backdrop of the dorm building.

As he headed downstairs he was distantly grateful for the fact that his room was below the students' so that they didn't see him going anywhere. While he didn't care if any of them knew about his relationship with Hizashi, he wasn't going to advertise it either. As it was, he had to send a text to Shinsou to keep everyone upstairs when he heard Ashido's excited scream that, "Present Mic is here!"

There were very few times he was so selfish, but he was not about to let anyone get in the way of him seeing his husband. It was an unspoken rule between them that, when they could manage it, they were the first one who got to see the other when returning from a trip.

When Hizashi stepped into sight in the entryway, struggling with one of his duffel bags trying to slip off his shoulder, Shouta rushed forward to help him out. The grin he got in exchange, no matter how tinged with fatigue, reached his eyes and undid all of the tension that had built up in Shouta the last several days.

"Hey," he greeted softly, shifting the newly acquired bag onto his shoulder so Hizashi could properly embrace him.

Being wrapped up in his arms again was a welcome feeling and Shouta let his eyes fall closed as he laid his forehead against Hizashi's shoulder. Even if he smelled strange -like airport and foods and cities he didn't recognize- it was nice to have him so close again.

"Hey babe." Lips were placed against his ear and Shouta let himself smile.

"How was it?" He asked when they released each other. He knew well enough that when Hizashi got going he would be gesturing wildly to emphasize certain things. And sure enough, as he told him about how amazing Hamburg was, how crazy cool the architecture and language was, his arms were all over the air.

"... It was awesome! And wow, so many great people over there- the food was so~ good! And I brought you back some stuff, too. I can show you later. Don't let me forget."

He adjusted the strap on his shoulder and nodded. Despite how tired Hizashi looked, he was still vibrating with energy. He must have gotten his second wind between driving here and talking about his trip.

"So, how are the kids?"

"They missed you."

"Oh yeah?"

He smirked. "Nezu's teaching isn't exactly what anyone would call fun."

Hizashi's laugh carried edges of his quirk and Shouta guaranteed the students heard. No doubt they were wondering what was going on.

"Ha! Nezu subbed? I thought they'd get Nemuri or, I don't know, Thirteen to do it."

"Nope."

"Crazy…" He shook his head, shoulders still shaking a little bit with the tail end of his amusement. When he looked at him again his eyes softened. "And how have you been?"

"You already know." They had enough phone calls and texts from the last week and a half for him to know exactly how he'd been.

"I know. But it doesn't hurt to hear it once in awhile."

Shouta rolled his eyes but still pressed his forehead against Hizashi's. "I missed you, too."

It was true. He had missed him more than he could quite articulate. Thankfully Hizashi spoke through affection more than anything else and would easily understand all the unsaid things when Shouta buried a hand into his hair and drew him close enough to banish the distance between them.

Hizashi hummed against his mouth, a content noise that warmed the air around them. Shouta smiled in spite of himself, and when Hizashi went to deepen the kiss, he happily acquiesced.

Or, he would have, had a loud gasp and the sound of bare feet retreating back upstairs not interrupted them.

A few seconds later indiscernible shouting could be heard from above.

"Damn kids." He shook his head. He was too tired to deal with anyone properly tonight, but in the morning there would definitely be a lecture about following orders and respecting the privacy of their elders.

Hizashi was of no help, of course, laughing and saying, "Whoops! Guess that secret's out."

* * *

Denki didn't know how the guys had found out about his crush, but it had happened somewhere between the trip a couple of weeks ago and now. And the thing was, he didn't even care. He was beyond caring how it happened, because he was busy recruiting them in order to figure out what was up with Shinsou.

"I mean it makes no sense! One second we're hanging out daily and the next, he's treating me like I've got a repellent quirk!" He pulled at his hair in his frustration.

Up to that point, nobody had any solutions to his problem. They just been chalk full of unhelpful replies consisting of "I don't know"s and "Maybe it's not what you think it is"s, and he was getting fed up with all of it. He had half a mind to march up to Shinsou's door and demand to know what his problem was.

And if there was one other person who was also growing tired of the conversation, it was Bakugou. Denki hadn't missed the way his eye twitched every time the problem was brought up. So, after complaining for the third time that night, he wasn't all that surprised when the blond blew up.

"Oh my god, are you seriously that oblivious?" Glaring red eyes met his and Denki scowled back. He didn't know what Bakugou was trying to get at, but he wasn't in the mood to be called an idiot. Granted, he wasn't done talking yet either, but Denki wanted his bases covered.

"Shinsou's pissed off because-"

Whatever he intended to say was cut off by Hagakure running in and shouting.

"Guys, guys! Omigosh! GUYS! I JUST SAW Mr. AIZAwA AND MIC KISSING!"

The motion of someone face palming caught in the corner of his eye alerted Denki to Shinsou's sudden presence. The scowl that had been for Bakugou was moved to be directed at him, and for the first time in a while, Denki didn't care how Shinsou felt about it.

Well, maybe he did, but he refused to acknowledge that. Shinsou had been an avoidant pain since getting back from the Festival and deserved to be on the receiving end of his annoyance. It helped that Shinsou was giving him a dirty -if slightly confused- look right back. Everyone else around them was freaking out, because apparently they hadn't even suspected their teachers were in a relationship. He could admit feeling a bit surprised that the assumptions at the back of his mind had turned out to be correct, but it wasn't an earth shattering revelation to him.

At least it hadn't been until he heard Iida's voice above the others.

"Why are you causing such a commotion about that? They've been married for 6 years, that's a perfectly normal thing to do."

"Wait, they're what?" He stared at Iida expectantly then, along with everyone else who, with the exception of a few like Bakugou, Shinsou and Todoroki, were gaping.

"Tensei is close friends with Mr. Yamada." Iida said it like it should've been obvious to everyone.

And maybe it should have, but it hadn't been. Not even a little bit. When Denki thought about marriage he could say with certainty that he'd never once thought about his teachers. At most he'd assumed they had recently got together, or were just super close because, y'know he didn't know their lives. But to find out they were married, had been for that long, and none of them had ever even noticed? That was crazy.

Denki thought back to that night he'd slept over at Kyouka's house. How, on the radio Mr. Mic had said that he didn't know of any laws barring heroes of the same sex being together. Where the caller was probably talking about just dating, he'd been answering in the context and perspective of someone who already was married and had likely dealt with all of those same questions. The answer he'd given that caller… it had been deeper than Denki realized.

It made him think about all the feelings he'd been having about Shinsou during that time as well and he suddenly felt stupid for getting angry with him. Maybe he didn't know what was going through Shinsou's head- why he was ignoring him. But it wasn't right of him to be angry about Shinsou keeping secrets from him regarding his feelings when Denki knew he was doing the same thing. And in his case it was worse, because he was hiding romantic feelings from Shinsou.

And maybe Shinsou had figured that out and that was why he hadn't been spending as much time with him. In which case, he was being selfish, wanting Shinsou to exit his comfort zone to satisfy his need for attention.

Maybe it would be best to just talk with Shinsou after all, figure out what was wrong. Maybe then he could assure him that he didn't have to worry about his feelings, because he wasn't going to let them ruin their friendship. Denki could just tell him that in a couple of months he'd forget all about having a crush and things would go back to normal… but he didn't know if he could truthfully say that.

_Maybe I should just talk to Mr. Mic first,_ he thought. _He usually has pretty good advice_.

It was that thought that had him sneaking out of his room later that night when everyone else had gone to bed.

He wasn't one hundred percent sure that Mr. Mic had stayed overnight, but given that he'd never heard anyone mention his car leaving he figured that was the case. He tip-toed down the hall, fully intending to make for the stairs, but stopped as he passed the kitchen and saw the light was on. And that Mr. Aizawa was in the room, wearing his pink sweatpants and brewing coffee.

"Oh… Mr. Aizawa. What's up? Where's Mr. Mic?"

His teacher didn't even turn around. "Sleeping. I sincerely hope you weren't planning on sneaking into my room to wake him up."

Denki gulped and shook his head even though the motion couldn't be seen. "No. Well, I mean yes- but now that you ask… no…"

Mr. Aizawa rattled through the cabinets for a cup -_two cups. Mic's asleep my ass_\- and spoke through a yawn.

"What did you even need that was so important you had to get up at-" he glanced at the clock, "-two in the morning."

"How did you know Mr. Mic liked you?"

It was the question he'd meant to ask his other teacher, but he supposed he did know Mr. Aizawa better, and he was the other half of the relationship so he could answer the question just as easily. Although he didn't know whether he would get anything out of him, which was why he'd wanted to talk with Mr. Mic in the first place.

To his eternal surprise, however, Mr. Aizawa answered pretty quickly. "Well, when he blurted out that we should date, it was pretty obvious. Why?"

Oh. Well, that wasn't helpful at all.

"Oh!" He glanced around the room to avoid looking at his teacher when he turned around to face him. "Sorry, yeah that makes sense. Ha! I don't know why I'm even asking. I was just curious I guess. Haha… well, I think I'm gonna go to bed n-"

"Kaminari." He flinched despite how gentle his tone was. "If you like Shinsou, just tell him."

"Wh-wha~t?" He knew his laugh was clearly tinged with panic and Denki wrapped crossed his arms to keep from passing a fretful current through his fingers. "I don't like Shinsou- who told you I liked Shinsou?"

Who had it been? Which one of his friends had thought it would be funny to tell people about his crush? Was that what happened with Shinsou? Someone had told him and he was too nice to turn him down so now he was avoiding him? Oh no. Nonono-

"Nobody told me."

Just like that his panicking thoughts were forced to come to a halt and he blinked tears out of his eyes before looking up at Mr. Aizawa, who'd come closer sometime during his internal freakout.

"Nobody did," he assured again. "But I'm not blind either."

"Oh." So Mr. Aizawa had just figured that out. Was that because he knew what to look for because he'd gone through the same thing?

"Okay, so maybe I like Shinsou." The admission was little more than a whisper, but it felt good to say, even if the next words tasted bitter. "But he doesn't like me, so telling him isn't gonna solve anything. I figured if I ignore the feelings long enough they'll go away. It's just a crush. So… these feelings will go away, right?"

_Please say yes. Please say yes. Even if it's a lie, say yes._

But while his teacher was many things, a liar wasn't one of them- another trait he and Shinsou shared. So when Mr. Aizawa shook his head, Denki couldn't be bothered to push the tears down. He bit his lip to retain even a little bit of dignity in front of the man when Mr. Aizawa crouched down to be at eye level with him. That endeavor didn't last long after he put a hand on his shoulder, and Denki wanted to laugh at the fact that before that school year his teacher had never seen him cry so many times.

There was a sympathy in Mr. Aizawa's voice when he spoke. It was a tone that said he'd been there and understood what he was going through. Denki didn't know if that was true, but all the same it made him want to bury himself into his chest like he would have with his mom if she'd been there.

"Those feelings… They might, but they might not- Mic held onto his for years before saying anything. I know that's tough to hear. But, hey, look at me."

Denki did as instructed and wiped at his eyes so that when Mr. Aizawa stared into them he could see the seriousness behind the soft voice. "You shouldn't jump to conclusions on whether or not Shinsou likes you back. Relationships are hard, but communication helps- especially when you want to get them started. Do you understand?"

He understood. He wanted to argue that he knew enough about Shinsou to know that he didn't like him -not anymore anyway, if he ever had in the first place- but he didn't. He didn't have the energy. Instead he just nodded, which seemed to satisfy his teacher.

"Good. Then I'm going to bed now." He straightened up and went to grab his cups of coffee off the counter. "And after you two finish your talk, you'd better go to sleep. In your own beds."

_The two of you?_

"What are you talking about?"

Before Mr. Aizawa disappeared into the stairwell he nodded to somewhere past Denki's shoulder. Even without turning around, he could've figured out what was going on now. He had a good idea of who was standing there. Still, when he saw Shinsou's tired eyes locked on him, wide with bewilderment, he couldn't help but let out a choked cry.

"I-I wasn't, um… I mean… How much of that did you hear?"

Shinsou dragged a hand through his bedraggled hair and puffed out his cheeks. "Um… just about all of it."

"Oh. Cool. Great. Yep."

A thrill of panic ran down his spine, not for the first time that night and Denki wanted to hide. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on him either; the whole time he'd been worrying about somebody else outing his secret to Shinsou and he'd been the one who ended up actually doing it. Now if their friendship was ruined he really did only have himself to blame.

Shinsou took a single step out from the shaded hallway and a single breathy laugh escaped him when the light hit him and revealed he was… blushing?

"You do realize that… that day, when we went to the mall. I was asking you out."

"Yeah, I know. You asked me to hang out-"

"No. No, I was trying to ask you out on a date."

His brain died on him a moment, and in the time it took him to system reboot after hearing that he screamed internally at his own obliviousness. How had he missed that? "_Do you want to go out with me"_ and he'd assumed he'd meant as friends- the entire time they'd been avoiding each other _they could have been dating?_

His frustration with himself bled out in the form of a long shout muffled behind his hands. "And I invited people too… Ooooh my god, I really am stupid- that's why you've been pissed?"

"You're not stupid but...I mean, yeah." Shinsou scratched his head again. "I guess… now that I know you didn't do it as a passive-agressive way of turning me down, it's stupid to be mad."

Denki dragged his hands down his face and resisted the urge to yell more. His mind was running a mile a minute trying to find all the clues in their past interactions that Shinsou liked him. He supposed him holding onto his wrist, and nudging his shoulder, and sitting close to him when they did school, and having late night talks about personal things… basically everything they'd done together… could have… been… a pretty big indicator when he thought about it.

And then it was so obvious that he didn't know how he could've missed it.

"So." Shinsou broke the silence and took a couple more steps until they were a few feet apart. "You like me."

It wasn't a question, but Denki still found himself nodding while his face burned with embarrassment over having missed all the signs.

"And you like me?"

"So much."

"Holy shit."

Shinsou laughed and the sound traveled from into his ears and down to his toes, leaving a giddy warmth behind.

"So…" he bit his lip for the millionth time that day. "Can I hug you now."

"Hu-" He appeared confused for half a second. "Yeah."

Shinsou closed the distance between them wordlessly, his arms wrapping around his shoulders and holding him tight. Denki felt his eyes well up again as he tucked himself under his chin and his hands wandered around to grip the back of his shirt. The feeling of security hit him immediately and he sniffled against the boy he'd grown pretty fond of. Shinsou rubbed little circles in his back and Denki shut his eyes against the onslaught of tears that wanted to escape.

When they finally released each other, Denki dried his eyes with his palm and let out a wet snort. "So. That happened."

"Yeah," Shinsou agreed with a chuckle of his own.

"We could have been dating this whole time."

"I know."

"So… I'm guessing it's too early to… kiss you?" His face felt like it was on fire. He was sure he knew the answer to that, but he still wanted to ask on the off chance that Shinsou surprised him.

And of course he did, because he seemed to have a knack for that as of late.

"Why? Unless you don't want to, I don't see why it would be." He tilted his head and Denki finally let himself watch the way his hair flipped with the motion. It was nice to have that to focus on so he didn't wheeze. Because Shinsou didn't want to wait. Shinsou wanted to kiss him _now_.

"No, I want to."

He sounded overly eager and he didn't even care. Not when one of Shinsou's hands was cupping his cheek and the other was being planted at the back of his neck. Not when he was reaching up to finally, _finally_, thread his fingers through that soft hair like he'd imagined doing a million times. And definitely not when Shinsou pulled him close to press their lips together.

He knew he was shaking and he didn't even care, because it was hard enough to believe the moment was happening without worrying about what he was doing.

It was better than he'd imagined it. Nothing he dreamed up could've prepared him for how warm Shinsou would be, or how good he smelled so up close. It definitely couldn't have prepared him for how soft his lips were, or how the taste of toothpaste lingered on them.

The only thing he did know to expect was how hard his heart would be beating in that moment.

When they finally parted, his lips tingled and he couldn't help but brush his fingertips against them. He almost didn't believe that happened until he looked up and saw Shinsou had a similar dazed look on his face.

There were so many things he could've said in that moment- so many things he wanted to say. But for some reason none of those came out and instead he smiled a little loopily and asked, "Does this mean I can call you Hitoshi now?"

Shinsou started laughing -shoulder shaking, gulping breaths laughing- and doubled over, dropping his head onto his shoulder. Denki was startled by that, but found himself giggling a little when Shinsou's amusement proved to be contagious.

"Yes, you dork." He confirmed between breaths, "As long as I can call you Denki."

"Well, duh."

Shinsou- Hitoshi, kissed him again then, quick and sweet before pulling him into another hug. Denki melted into the touch and closed his eyes. He couldn't believe he'd spent almost two months agonizing over whether Hitoshi could like him. Thinking back on everything, it was painfully obvious.

Wait.

"Hitoshi. Does this mean you're morosexual?"


End file.
